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I want to ask something slightly different from the usual first-gallery stories. Mine: I sent a small body of blue prints to a space here in Porto years ago. Nice reply, "not for us right now," very polite. Two years later I walked past and they were showing something so close to what I had sent that I stood there in the rain feeling strange about it. Not angry exactly. Just strange. I never said anything, and I still don't know if that was the right call. So, has that happened to you? A no that turned into someone else's yes, or a no that later turned out to be a gift. And the small question underneath it, because I think we all carry one: did you ever write back after a rejection, or did you let it go quiet like I did. I would genuinely like to know. It helps to hear how other people carry these things.

The first gallery that took my work didn't take anything I sent them. I sent the quiet collages and they picked a single small piece, hung it near the back, and it sold for what I'd have considered an insult ten years earlier. I was grateful anyway. It taught me something about expectations though. Did your first gallery disappoint you, or did it surprise you in a good way? I hear so many bad first-gallery stories I wonder if anyone's had a good one.