The guy who told me my piece would be "more marketable" if I cropped out the dead tree
went to a friend's opening last night and this man I've never met walks up to a piece I have in the show, it's this big mixed-media thing I worked on for months, central image is this dead elm against a gray sky, torn paper and charcoal and some old family photos collaged into the roots, and he goes "love the texture but you're burying the lede, that tree is a downer, crop it to just the bottom third and you've got something people would actually buy"
i just stood there holding my wine. didn't say anything useful. just nodded like a malfunctioning toy. and now i'm lying in bed at 7am still replaying it and thinking about all the things i should have said.
the tree is the whole point my guy. the tree is doing the work. you want me to make you a nice little abstract of some roots? go buy a print at homegoods.
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The dead tree is the whole point, isn't it. That's what gives the piece weight, the grey sky, the elm, the family photos tangled in the roots. Crop that out and you've got texture, not a feeling.
I've had versions of that conversation. Someone once told me my photograms would sell better if I made them smaller and framed them white. They meant well, probably. But they were talking about a different thing entirely than the thing I was making.
I'm sorry you stood there with your wine and couldn't find the words. I wouldn't have either, in the moment. But that man was looking at your work and seeing a product. You made a poem. Those are different languages.
yeah, exactly. the tree is the thing. cropping it out would just be... decorative wall art for a waiting room.
the photogram comment hit close. people think they're being helpful but they're describing a completely different object than the one you made. like sure i could make something easy to sell. i just don't want to.
and the wine-nod is the worst part. i keep thinking of what i should have said. probably nothing that would've landed anyway.