4 results for “the struggle is real”
I've heard so many stories about the struggle to get representation, which is real, bof. But I'm curious about what happens after. What's the strangest or most unexpected thing that happened once a gallery actually agreed to show your work? Was it a difficult client, a weird promotion, something totally bizarre? Tell me something that happened after the 'yes'. For me, it was being asked to paint a portrait of the owner's poodle for their birthday. C'est ça.
I've painted probably 40 or 50 pieces since I picked this back up, and I think I've kept exactly three. The rest go to family, friends, the local fair, or sit stacked in the corner of my office waiting to be dealt with. I don't know why I'm so weird about keeping them. Almost like keeping one for myself feels indulgent or presumptuous or something. Anyway. This weekend I finally framed one I did back in January, a little still life with pears and a blue cloth, and hung it in the kitchen above the coffee maker. Every time I walk past it I stop and look at it for a second. It's not perfect but it's mine and I like seeing it there. My 8-year-old said "that looks like real pears" which might be the best review I've ever gotten. Anyone else struggle to keep what they make?
It's not even the first time she's said something like this. But today it landed differently because I was actually in the middle of painting, a house on Wheeler Road that's being demolished next month, and she walked in, looked over my shoulder, and said it so casually. Like it was just obvious. Like I was a child playing with paints. I didn't say anything back. What do you even say? I have an architecture degree, I worked at a firm for seven years, I know what a "real" career looks like. I chose to leave it. Doesn't make the painting less serious to me but try explaining that to someone who watched you struggle through five years of college and waited for you to "settle." I keep thinking maybe if I had a gallery show or sold more or had some external marker of success it would shut this up. But also maybe it wouldn't. Anyone else's family just not see what you do as work?
I spent years putting only the final work online. Perfect lighting, good photo, the painting resolved. Crickets, mostly. A few likes from other painters. A few months ago I was frustrated with a figure painting, the hand was wrong for the fourth time, the whole thing looked a mess, and I took a photo of it on the easel with my palette旁边, just to vent to a painter friend. I put it on Instagram almost without thinking. That post got more comments than anything I'd put up in six months. People like to see the struggle. They like to see that you also don't know what you're doing for a while. I think for a long time I thought showing process would somehow diminish the finished work, like revealing the trick. But most people aren't painters. They have no idea what goes into it, and watching something get ugly and then get pulled back out of the ugly, that's the part they actually want to see. I'm still not comfortable with it. I was trained to show only the resolved thing. But I can't argue with the numbers, and more to the point I can't argue with the fact that the conversations are better. People ask real questions instead of just saying "beautiful." Wondering if anyone else has found that the unfinished, uncertain thing gets more traction than the polished final version.