9:19 a.m. - 2004-10-17
Galleries
There's a new gallery opening in town. I hope it's one I like and can show my stuff in. Except for the student shows at the college--which I sort of faked my way into once--there are only two galleries. One is way expensive; the pieces go for as much as $3000--local favorites and those wall-size abstracts, everybody thinking they're Jackson Pollack. I'm not locally famous enough to sell anything there.
And the other one is pretty much Art That Would Look Pretty Over the La-Z-Boy. Art that you want to see when you wake up from your after dinner nap. Loyal dogs, noble horses, the stag at bay--all with big eyes; Field and Stream in an expensive frame. Give them credit (I suppose) for not showing the crying clowns or the dogs playing poker.
The big galleries--New York galleries, for example--sometimes charge you a fee just to show your art. And some of them want to be your exclusive agent forever after. And most want--demand--a fifty percent commission. This is why artists are starving artists.
That's about the art gallery situation, except for the local gas station, of course.

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