Gallery mentality

[Heidi Maiers]

Great advice Marcus and Anthony,
So true that to be a successful artist, you really must know how to, not only market your work, but market yourself as well. I do like your approach Anthony (by the way, that is also my son

[Linda Brandon]

Heidi, this is an interesting thread and I wanted to offer you some more words of encouragement (though I don't know much about galleries).

I think you should think of yourself as having a national presence and get out of the whole local art mentality altogether. I encourage you to search the web for public art grants and other funding opportunities, with perhaps a goal toward making something about your art unique to you (other than your extremely good skills and intelligence).

In other words, can you make yourself, say, "fountain-specific"? I think the "person sitting on a bench" thing is taken already. Or, perhaps, "hanging from things by steel rods?" or "moblies" (I like those, I couldn't resist saying that. If fyou make a wind sculpture I'll buy that one for sure.)

I don't mean to sound "gimmicky" but it might help to have some kind of "hook".

Think of yourself as a huge, unstoppable, creative force rolling downhill! I don't want you to stop.

[Heidi Maiers]

Hi Linda,
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I know what you are saying about finding one

[Richard Murdock]

Hi Heidi,

I know you're work and a quite surprised at the response you've gotten. I can only imagine, as Rob said, that you had the bad luck to pick several rude galleries. I've had very good experiences with the galleries I've dealt with. I say this to encourage you to find the right dealer for your work. I know that this approach is considered hopeless, but I've had great success just sending a short email with several images attached. At the very least it helps you eliminate the rude ones pretty easily. Good luck.

[Heidi Maiers]

Hi Richard, thanks for the nice sentiments. I had forgotten about this thread written two years ago. Since then, I had given up on the idea of trying to get into a local gallery and have just been doing what I love.

Turned out to be a good thing I think since I can accept only the jobs that I want to do and not feel pressured to make a living sculpting.
As a result, I've picked up some good clients and the orders have been coming in steadily for the past two years. Now I look forward to a break when I can experiment with my own things. Currently, I'm booked through Jan 2008, so it will be a while. Some day I'll be brave enough to hang up my day job, but not today.

[Richard Murdock]

That's fantastic Heidi, thanks for letting me know. You deserve your success.
R

[Richard Jones]

Congratulations on your success, Heidi.

I'm in a similar situation right now. I have recently started looking at local galleries for marketing purposes mainly, and to sell a few paintings as well. I love the idea of being able to paint what's in your heart and finding a niche for it. I also love the idea of having so much work from commisions orders that I'll be busy for at least the next year. Is it possible to do both? Probably. I hope I get to that point in my career.

If I'm off topic, I apologize. And again, congratulations. I am an admirer of your work, and thread has given me a lot to consider.