at a party....

I went to a party last Saturday night and met a generous artist. He was generous with information that was very helpful to me. I was lamenting the fact that the paintings i make are large at 6 ft X 4 ft and were therefore not saleable because not many people have that kind of wall space. He countered that wasn't really the problem. The problem was most likely the orientation which is usually in the vertical. He has had good luck with similarly sized pieces but going in the horizontal orientation. People have horizontal spaces in their home but a large verticle space is more difficult. Something to think about but then i need to ask myself, how wedded am i to that orientation? He is by any measure, a successful artist with gallery representation in several cities, sold out shows, and his work is in demand. But, he shared with me that sending his slides to galleries, after researching the galleries to make sure they would be a good fit, did not help him get into galleries. It was by way of an introduction, a serendipitous meeting with someone at a party with a gallery connection which coincidentally was a gallery he had sent his slides to. When he was accepted to this particular gallery, he mentioned that he had sent slides earlier and was rejected to which the gallery owner explained that her staff looks at the slides, not her and that they receive upwards of 50 slide packages a week. He stressed the importance of networking but above all, to keep working. Amen to that!
But speaking of sending slide packages, i did send my portfolio to the SFMOMA rental gallery in January and as it takes them 6 months to respond, i should be hearing from them soon.