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So a gallery I was talking to, small, not huge, but seemed legit, wanted me to ship them a bunch of pieces on consignment, cover the shipping myself, no guarantee anything would sell. I asked about the split and they sent me their "artist agreement." 70/30 their way. For a solo show. And I'd be paying for the opening night drinks out of my 30%. I laughed and said no obviously. But I'm still thinking about it, what IS normal these days? Like what's an actual fair split for a small gallery that's actually doing the work? I've heard 50/50, I've heard 60/40 artist-favoring, I've heard some places do 70/30 the artist's way if the artist is bringing the collectors. What are y'all actually seeing out there? What's walking-around real vs what's them trying it?

Last year a museum in Germany asked me to do a talk and a small intervention in their permanent collection. Three days of work plus prep. They had a budget. I told them not to worry about it. I don't even have a good reason. I respected the institution. I liked the curator. I wanted to seem generous. So I just said don't worry about it and ate the time. My son found out and gave me this look. Not angry. Just disappointed in a way that was worse. He said you always tell me to value my work and then you do this. I sat with that for a while. I'm still sitting with it. The thing is I know exactly why I did it. There's a part of me that still thinks if I'm not being paid it means I'm doing it for the right reasons. Which is a stupid romantic holdover from the 80s when nobody had any money anyway. Now I have a studio to run and materials to buy and a grown son who watches me undermine myself. I charged them eventually. Six months later. Sent an invoice with a note saying I reconsidered. They paid it without a word. But I still feel the embarrassment of that first conversation. Not the embarrassment of asking for money. The embarrassment of being too afraid to ask for it.

I've never once gotten a reply from a cold email. Not one. But the two actual gallery conversations I've had came from walking in somewhere with a small portfolio and just talking to whoever was at the desk like a human. Both times they said "email us" and both times nothing happened after lol. So what's the real move here? Do people actually land shows from cold outreach or is it all who you know and showing your face? Tell me I'm wrong, I want to be wrong, I'm tired of driving places with my work in the trunk hoping someone's in a good mood.

A small gallery I've been talking to finally offered me a solo show for next spring. I was buzzing about it for like a day. Then they said the budget for materials is $200. I don't think they're trying to screw me. They're tiny. But $200 barely covers the paper and panel for one large piece, let alone the paint, the medium, the charcoal, the adhesive, the found materials I buy from estate sales. I'd be eating the rest myself and I already have a day job I hate. I said yes because the opportunity is real and I've been wanting this. But I'm already doing the math in my head and it's not great. I have about 8 months. I'm trying to figure out if I can pull this off without it costing me more than whatever I might sell. Anyone else done a show where the "support" was basically symbolic? How did you handle the gap without looking ungrateful?

A panel, 20 by 30 cm. A little olive tree, smalti and salvaged stone, the kind of thing I can hold in two hands. I quoted 340 euros to a woman who found me through a friend of a friend, and she came back with "but it's only small, can you do 150?" Here is the thing about small. Small is not less work. Small is the same hands, the same cutting, the same three kilos of tesserae sorted by tone before I set one of them down. The size of the finished piece has almost nothing to do with the hours. If anything I lose money on small work because the setup eats a bigger share of it. I said no, and I said it kindly, and I explained the hours once. Not a lecture, just the arithmetic. She went quiet for two days and then wrote back and took it at 340. I am not posting this to be praised for holding the line. I am posting it because I nearly said yes. I stood in my kitchen at eleven at night doing sums in my head and thinking, well, 150 is 150. That is the actual danger. The number is small enough that you can talk yourself into it and then you have taught someone what your work costs. What I want to know is how the rest of you answer the size argument, because mine is getting tired and I would like a better one.

Right, I'll go first so nobody feels like they're confessing into the void. I said yes to a spot years back in a town I won't name. Small room, nice light, chap seemed sound, and about a week before the show he started asking if I'd "do the framing myself, like, to save us both a few bob." Grand, sure. Then he wanted a cut of the door on the opening night. Then he wanted me to help paint the fecking walls. I was that thrilled to have a wall at all that I said yes to every one of them and did the walls badly. Ended up fine, sold a few, learned nothing, went back to him twice more. That's the honest part. I didn't learn anything for years. So, what was the earliest red flag you spotted and ignored anyway? The deposit that never quite happened, the "we'll sort money after", the gallery that's actually a cafe with hooks, the landlord's cousin who "knows art people". Give me the one that had you going ah here, that's not right, and then you signed anyway. Not looking for the horror stories where it all went wrong, I want the small ones. The ones you talked yourself past. Tell me I'm not the only eejit.

I'm realizing the red flags are easy to list (we've all done it) but the green flags are harder to name, and honestly more useful. For me: I was emailing with this tiny gallery in a converted house, kind of half expecting nothing, and the owner asked me what time of day I usually paint and whether my work looks better in morning or evening light. Nobody had ever asked me that. Not a single person. And I was like oh. You actually look at the work, not just the jpeg. Ended up showing there and it was a genuinely good experience. So what's the thing that flipped it for you? A question they asked, something they said no to, a way they talked about another artist, whatever. The small signal that made you go okay, these people are real. Also curious if anyone's had the opposite where a place looked perfect on paper (nice space, nice website, says all the right things) and then you got in the room and something was just off. My partner thinks I'm too suspicious of nice websites and I need to know if I'm right haha.

I'll go first, so nobody has to be brave alone. About fifteen years back a small space in Germany offered me a solo. Nice walls, nice light, the director talked about my work like he understood it. What I ignored: he never once mentioned a budget. Not for transport, not for the install, not for anything. I said yes anyway because a solo is a solo and I was hungry for it. He was genuinely shocked when I asked who pays for the truck. Then he was shocked again when I said I would not pay it myself. Whole thing fell apart two weeks later. Best money I never spent. Your turn. What was the thing you saw early and told yourself wasn't a big deal? The contract that had no dates. The dealer who was rude to the installer. The commission that was never written down. I want the small ones especially. The huge red flags are easy to spot. It's the little ones everyone talks themselves past. Tell me yours.

ok so i was talking to a gallery a few months back, small one, seemed nice, and then near the end they go "oh and we ask our artists to cover the opening drinks and food, about 200€, standard thing" and i just sat there like... is this standard??? i said i'd think about it and never wrote back. what's the wildest thing a gallery has tried to make you pay for? i need to know if i'm too suspicious or if that's actually crazy.

We talk a lot about the obvious red flags, the ones that wave themselves at you. But I've been thinking about the opposite: the gallery that looked right, felt right, you trusted them, and then somewhere along the way it quietly fell apart. I had one a few years ago. A small space near the river, the owner understood the work, she talked about light and patience and I thought, finally. The show went well. Then she started postponing the payout. Just a week, then another, then a month. Always a warm excuse, always a promise. I let it go because I liked her, because the first impression was so good. I ended up waiting almost five months. What about you, the gallery that seemed perfect and then showed you otherwise? What was the first crack?

I keep thinking about the gallery that wanted to show my etchings a few years back. Contract was vague, no dates for the show, and the gallerist kept saying "we'll figure it out." I signed anyway because I was flattered someone in Berlin wanted my work. The show got postponed three times and then quietly cancelled, and I never got a straight answer. I still haven't learned my lesson properly, honestly. There's always a small voice going "this feels off" and I talk myself out of it because saying no feels like closing a door. What's the red flag you saw early and ignored? And did it turn out to be exactly what you feared?

Okay I need stories because I almost walked into a trap this week. Gallery loved my work, talked all this big show stuff, then slid in "small admin fee" and I got that itch. Walked. My worst one though was way back, first time I ever had a gallery interested. The owner kept calling my pieces "decorative" and said they'd need to see my "process documentation" before they'd commit. Real weird. I should've known the second they said that, but I was so desperate to be wanted I almost went along with it. What's the biggest red flag you've seen from a gallery and did you get out in time? Or did you ignore it and pay for it later? Tell me I'm not the only one who's been this naive 😭

I brought a folder of twenty pieces to mine. The gallerist looked at maybe four, then asked what I was reading. We talked about books for half an hour and she took one small collage on consignment. I've never once needed the other sixteen. So what did you actually bring, and did it matter? A big portfolio, one piece, a laptop, nothing at all? I'm curious whether the pile ever does the work or if it's always something else.

I still think about my first gallery. Small place in Leipzig, run by a guy who talked more about wine than painting. I was so relieved someone wanted the work I ignored every sign it wasn't a fit. Lasted eighteen months, then folded. Mine was the wrong yes. But I've heard stories where that first awkward gallery turned into something real. Was your first gallery the right one or the one you learned from?

Now I'll tell you mine first so nobody feels like they're going out on a limb. I had a little gallery over in Georgia, real nice space, white walls, the woman was kind. Then she told me she loved the quilts but could I take the titles off them. The names, the little cards about who the cloth came from. Said it "distracts from the work." Honey, the cloth IS the work. My grandmother's church dress is in that quilt. I took my pieces home that afternoon. So I want to know. What's the thing a gallery said or asked that told you to gather up your things and go? Could be small. Could be a price they wanted to knock down, could be how they talked to you at the door, could be something they said about your people or your subject. I know y'all have one. Tell me I'm too sensitive if you want. I don't mind. 🙂

ok so this happened last month and I'm still not over it. I had a walkthrough at a small space, it was going fine, and then the director asked me what my work is about and I gave her a whole rambling thing about my cold press paper and how the sizing takes the wash differently and she just kind of nodded and moved on. I got to my car and wanted to scream because that's not what I meant at all, I meant the window and the light and my dad, and instead I gave her a paper review. so tell me your version, what's the sentence you actually pull out when a gallery asks what your work is about? or the one you wish you'd said? I'm collecting them because I refuse to be a person who talks about paper ever again. mine, the one I should have said: I paint one window over and over because I'm trying to hold onto a room that isn't mine anymore. there. see how easy that was, three weeks too late 😭

I did a craft fair a couple weekends ago and made $64 total, but $40 of it came from two people I stopped being "the seller" with and just talked to like a normal human. One was a woman who asked a technical question about how I get the sky so smooth in acrylics, which turned into a 15 minute conversation about gesso and soft brushes, and she bought two small prints before she left. The other was a guy who told me his mom used to paint and we just stood there talking about her for a while. He bought one. I'm not saying this is some genius insight. But I spent the other five hours half-smiling at people and getting ignored, and the money came out of the two actual conversations. Kind of makes me wonder how much of my online posting is the equivalent of that half-smile at strangers. All these process reels and behind the scenes stuff I do, and it's the one-to-one stuff that actually moves anything. Anyway, back to my day job tomorrow. The fair was fun but I came home with more unsold inventory than I know what to do with lol.

I still think about the first gallery I almost had. Small spot, owned by an older painter who actually knew how to hang work and talk to clients. I was young, blew the meeting by being nervous and trying too hard. Never got a second shot. Anyone else got one that slipped through their fingers? Or did you dodge a bullet and not know it at the time.

A woman from Athens emailed about a floor panel for a hotel entrance, about two square metres, asked for a quote. My old reflex was to do the arithmetic: smalti cost, days on the floor, a number per square metre, done. This time I wrote back and said the price depends on how many colours are in it and how much cutting that means, and I can't give her a number before I know that. I said I'd rather do a small paid sample first, 30cm, she sees how the stone behaves, then we talk about the whole panel. She went quiet for nine days and then said she'd found someone who gave her a clear price immediately. I've been turning it over since. The per-metre number was always a lie I told in a confident voice, because it made clients comfortable. And it made me take jobs that were nothing but cutting, hundreds of tiny pieces, for a rate that assumed big easy ones. That's how I ended up doing six weeks of work in 2019 for something like seven euros an hour. So I'm not going back to it. But I clearly haven't worked out what to say instead that doesn't sound like I'm avoiding the question. Any of you who sell made things, how do you answer "how much" without either lying or losing them?

I'm not talking about the obvious ones like "we need money upfront." I mean the small thing you noticed in the meeting that made your stomach go tight. For me it was the contract. Two pages, and no line saying when it ends. I asked, and the owner said "oh, we don't really do that, it's a relationship, not a lease." He said it very nicely. I still did not sign it, and then I spent two weeks wondering if I had just thrown away my one chance 🙃 So tell me yours. The thing they said, or the thing that was missing from the paper. Partly because I want to know I was right to walk, and partly because I have another meeting in two weeks and I would like to know what to watch for 😅