“I represent myself.”
When I was in school, my professors made it clear that my primary objective upon entering the big bad world should be to find gallery representation. So I tried and, with each new series I began, I tried again. And again and again. And I still try! But, early on in this continual application process, I realized that gallery representation wasn’t probably in the cards for an artist devoted to specific likenesses who is still relatively young and untried. What’s more, it’s not even right for me at this point in my career. I need to learn how marketing works, to be self-reliant, before I can fully understand what I want and need in an agent.
“I represent myself” is how I learned to respond to the forever-question “where do you show?” That simple little query used to sting, but no more! Now, instead of feeling like I’m missing some important qualification that my interrogator needs me to have in order for her-him to respect my work, I own my status as an independent artist.
Getting Inside Your Head
front (above) and back (below)
This is an envelope made from Charles Froelick’s portrait and mailed to him as the owner and director of Froelick Gallery.
I started applying to venues for Apple Pie beginning in early 2006, when I first developed the concept for the show. One strange night in the studio, the promotional machine that lives in my head joined with my love for creating mail art. Before I knew it, I’d cut up some old portraits and folded them into envelopes to send to their subjects, all of them local art dealers whom I’d painted in 2003 as part of Critics Critiqued. I thought these portrait-envelopes would help my applications stand out and I figured that the gallery owners wouldn’t mind owning their portraits—even in a slightly mutilated form! Honestly, it amused me to think of them having to cut their own heads open to get to the contents of the envelope.
You Happen To Be Part Of My American Dream
front (above) and back (below)
This is a canvas envelope on which I painted an American flag. There was something cathartic and sort of spiritual about painting the flag, and this envelope inspired me in a painting I later made for Apple Pie.
Since I represent myself, I don’t have a regular gallery slot, and so I’m constantly applying to venues for my yearly conceptual shows.
I still think a series of portraits should be exhibited in Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft. The genre is often discredited in the fine art circles, and I think it would open up discussions about craft and art in a meaningful and exciting way. But the Museum’s curator stands steadfastly by her rule for no paintings on stretched material. My Apple Pie application (and flag-envelope) were for naught!
In the end, it has all worked out for the best. Too hot, too cold, just right: Apple Pie opens on 28 August at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, a venue with a mission to properly support the sort of conversation that surrounds this series!
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CATEGORIES: - Business of art -
(2) Comments / Commentaires: “I represent myself.”
Wow! What an inspirational and encouraging write! Thank u so much for sharing!
Carla Sanders...
Gwenn, thank you for that simple response: I represent myself. It professional and accurate. The person asking is talking to the person in charge!
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