the guy who wanted to pay me in "exposure" at a coffee shop that had exactly 4 customers including me
some guy at a cafe yesterday saw me working on a sketch, came over, loved it, said he runs a "curated online gallery" (instagram account with 300 followers). wanted to feature me. for free. in exchange for "exposure to his network."
i asked him how many sales his featured artists usually get from it. he said "well it's more about building relationships." so i said cool, let's build one where you pay me. he did not think that was funny.
he left me his card anyway. the card had a stock photo of a paintbrush on it.
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The card with the stock photo of a paintbrush is the detail that does it for me. That's the whole thing in one image, someone who wants the aesthetic of art without the substance of it.
I've had this conversation in various forms for twenty-five years. What always gets me is the assumption that exposure is a favour we should be grateful for. As if the problem with being unknown is that people haven't seen the work, not that they haven't paid for it. Exposure doesn't buy oil, doesn't pay studio rent, doesn't put food on the table. And an Instagram account with 300 followers, that's not a network, that's a handful of people who probably already follow each other.
You handled it well. The "let's build a relationship where you pay me" is exactly right. He didn't think it was funny because it cut through the performance.
The stock photo paintbrush is like a little emblem of the whole thing, isn't it. They want to look like they're in the art world without actually being in it.
I had someone once offer me "profit sharing" on a project that didn't exist yet and had no funding. When I asked how that works practically he got offended I didn't just trust him. The trust part always comes up, like being skeptical of vague promises means you're not a real artist. No mate, it means I've been burned before.
the card is genuinely living in my head rent free. which is more than he'd pay me, i guess.
but yeah the whole "exposure is a favor" thing is such a con. like no man, you wanting my work for free is YOU getting something from ME. let's not reverse this.