worst red flag you ignored because you wanted it to work
early in my career a gallery "offered" to represent me but wanted me to pay for the opening, drinks, food, invitations, the whole thing. i knew it was off but i was so desperate for a yes i almost did it anyway. thank god my friend talked me out of it.
what's the worst red flag you walked past because you wanted the opportunity too much? the thing you look back on and cringe at yourself for almost agreeing to
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The pay-to-play thing seems obvious in retrospect but when you're early and hungry it's easy to read it as just how things work. I almost signed on with a space that wanted me to cover materials and framing and transport, basically I'd be funding their exhibition. I told myself it was an investment.
What I think about now is not the almost-wasted money but the almost-wasted trust in my own judgment. The red flag wasn't just the ask, it was that I felt something wrong and nearly talked myself out of listening to it. That's the part that sticks.
That last line is the thing. The almost-wasted money stings but the almost-wasted trust, that's what would have done real damage. It takes years to learn to trust your own unease and one bad deal to break it again.
I had a gallery once who wanted me to change my scale. Paint bigger, they said, it sells better. I knew it was wrong for the work but I tried anyway. Made three big paintings I hated. Took me a year to get back to what I should have been doing in the first place. The money I spent on canvas and stretchers was nothing compared to the time I wasted second-guessing myself.
the scale thing hits different because it's not obviously shady. like, a gallery saying "go bigger" sounds like advice, not a red flag. but it's them asking you to make the kind of art they can sell instead of the kind you actually make. glad you got back to it but man, a year is brutal.
the trust in your own judgment thing hit me hard reading this. that's what i still get mad about when i think back, not that i almost lost money but that i almost learned to ignore my own gut. that would've been way more expensive in the long run.