What's the worst red flag you've seen from a gallery? I'll go first.
Walked into a meeting years back, small place, seemed fine. Owner spent the whole time telling me how my work would sell if I made it smaller and put it on a pedestal. Hadn't asked what I wanted to make. Just assumed I'd bend.
I walked. Never regretted it.
What's yours?
Mm, that's a good one. I had a gallery tell me once they loved my work but could I please "tone down the colors", make them softer, more neutral, so they'd fit in with the other pieces in the show. I looked at that woman and said, honey, these colors are my people. They been singing on my grandmother's quilts since before I was born. I can't tone down my own family.
She didn't get it. Some folks think they're buying cloth when really they're buying a piece of somebody's soul, and they want that soul to match their couch.
You did right walking. Stay with the ones who want what you make, not what they can make of you.
The quilt reference lands. That's a whole language she couldn't read. Good for you for saying it straight.
This is a very common thing sadly. Many people see our work only as product, not as practice. For myself also there have been people who said if you make it more modern, use less of the old motifs, then it will sell in Delhi and abroad. But Mithila painting is not mine to change like that. The fish, the peacocks, the lotus, these come from my mother and her mother. If I change them only to sell, then what am I even passing on?
You did right to walk. The work knows when it is being bent.
That's a good point about the work knowing. I think it does.
And you're right about heritage work. You can't strip out what makes it yours just to suit someone else's market. Those motifs aren't decoration, they're the whole language. Changing them for a buyer in Delhi is just hollowing it out.