The Night Flight of Peter Pan and Wendy - by Mab Graves
Dearly Beloved: Mab Speaks.
So as an artist, when you show in a gallery there are pretty
much 3 things you will hear quite often.
In my time of both
showing at and attending openings I have heard these same three things over and
over, and I really feel like they need to be addressed.
Gallery etiquette and conversation is something that mostly
has to be experienced and learned, and I meet so many young artists I want to
pull aside and say “Oh don’t say that!”
So here we go. ^_^
Question: “How long
did it take you to make this”
It really drives me crazy when I hear an artist say “It took
me like, 15 minutes!”……
Okay let’s break it down. Firstly: If said piece did indeed
take you 15 minutes, please immediately remove it from the wall and hide it
someplace secret. There is no possible way that a 15 minute piece is any good
at all.
Nope – don’t try to argue with me. Take it down.
That’s out of the way. So now: when I person asks me how
long a piece took to create, my answer is always:
“My entire life”.
There is really no more correct response than that. Every
piece I create is a culmination of my whole life’s experiences and mistakes.
While each one of my pieces takes anywhere from dozens to hundreds of hours to
create there is SO much more that goes into it and the value of your piece
should never be gauged by something as silly as the amount of hours taken to
execute it.
Comment: “I love your
work”
*Queue awkward moment noise*
No, this is actually a very sweet - if not well thought out - comment to make.
The reason this isn’t a good thing to say? There is really only
one possible answer: “Thank you” followed immediately by staring at shoes and
pretending to need more wine.
There is no where to go from there.
It’s a conversation kamikaze.
I have had shows where someone will come up to me and (very
sweetly) say that, then look at me hopefully as if waiting to see pearls of
wisdom fall or a witty comment from my lips.
I am a pretty dreadful conversationalist, and painfully shy
in public so I usually end up mumbling some gibberish that needs to be repeated
multiple times in order to eventually be translated into “umthankyousoverymuch”
Now, often openings are so busy that there is really no time
for anything other than a quick comment and handshake –but if you are in a
situation where the gallery is quiet and you would like to have an actual conversation
with the artist, here are a few brilliant things I have heard that ended up
striking interesting conversations and even friendships:
“I really love the darkness and depth of your pieces. They
actually make me taste grey”
“What in the world possessed you to paint this”
“ When I walked into the gallery and saw this piece, I went
from drunk to sober” (this guy wins the award! – and I let him name the price
on the piece ^_^)
Mainly – give your artist something to grab onto. A
springboard for somewhere to take the conversation.
Eavesdropping
over-hearing comment: “His work is overpriced”
Whoa! Okay, so maybe I am not the biggest fan of this
particular show, but it is never –ever- okay to comment on how another artist
prices his pieces.
Party foul.
As artists, we each have our own market and collectorship
and some are much higher than others. You obviously have no idea.
Maybe I would never buy a piece from this guy, but there is
no way I am ever going to publicly comment on the pricing of his work.
Hopefully he is being honest (and not ridiculous) in his
pricing but as artists we need to stick together and uphold the belief that
what we create has a valid, valuable and important place in our history and
generation.
Keep those comments to your mind ^_^
Art is struggling right now. Our generation can’t imagine
spending $400 on an original piece of art when they can get a print from Target
for $10. They don’t comprehend the honor and thrill of owing an original piece.
It is up to us to change the mindset. It is our duty to support one another and
struggle to keep creation alive.
Okay, so those are the main ones I have heard that I felt
really needed to be talked about but I want to hear from you, Are there other
tragic art mis-steps that you have encountered?
Let’s hear it.
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