Simplifying Gallery Life

Cornish, 60x48, 2005

I never imagined it would come to this. I have preached 'many baskets' for as long as I can remember, and here I am about to close out two decent reps. Flashing before my eyes are years of hard work making gallery representation happen, climbing the rungs slowly but surely to a point where, now, I must start backing off. It's not about age, health or retirement, I'm good to go for a bunch more years and my best work is still in front of me (said with a quick look around...) But there are lots of roses to smell and I really don't care to spend all day every day in the studio. Keeping fresh inventory in 8-10 galleries means a constant deadline and I'm, frankly, tired of deadlines. Quality suffers and there's little time to really play and enjoy the process which is the lifeblood of creativity.

These two galleries (Knoxville and Asheville) are fairly new on my roster. Three years for each, the first year being stellar in sales but the next two petering out sharply. Some of this is my fault, a lot of it is not. I expect things could turn around, but the drive time and lack of reason to go there other than exchange paintings is reason enough to call it quits. (I avoid shipping whenever possible and feel the need to visit in person anyway.)

So tomorrow, Thursday, we head out for two days on the road, coming home with eight big babies that will quickly be dispersed to other locations. I feel more relaxed already! 'Cornish', pictured above, is coming home along with several others from my Tartan Series. The idea was to use the colors in various tartans and make a paintings out of them. Sort of a title-before-the-painting kind of thing. Hey! Ideas and titles are sometimes hard to come by! No wonder I'm looking to cut back.