Cancelling the Exhibit..

I'm not feeling well at all right now. I've taken medicine for migraines but it hasn't worked completely. Today, I cancelled my exhibit scheduled to start next week. The gallery owner is a young kid who has been driving me nuts. First, he wanted to varnish three ancient paintings for $50 each and I said "No". I think he was angry about that which appeared to be reflected in his very terse press release about the show. Not only was it pretty empty, but it identified me as a Delaware native. Then, for his opinion, I showed him a photo of my newest painting and the price for which I was selling it. He wanted one-third of the price and threatened me. Although we hadn't discussed it, he thought he was my Delaware representative. My feeling was he was just showing the work we'd agreed on for the month of October. I think I was at fault for asking if he would permit me to show the painting already sold before the show. Normally, galleries wouldn't expect a cut of a painting's sale sold before an exhibit. In fact, I never heard of that. The fellow appeared to believe I desperately wanted gallery representation and would go along with anything he said. However, that idea is far from my personal feelings. I can't stand galleries and all their snobbery and total bullshit. My dream has always been to show my own paintings on my own. Period. The only reason I agreed to show in his gallery was that he asked and seemed low-key. I don't approach galleries anymore and I never sent any money for anybody to review my slides for a show.

I'm thin-skinned about my paintings. Each one is a piece of my heart. If I could handle rejection of my work, I probably would have done better financially. It's probably my downfall. But, then again, I'm blessed to be able to paint and I'm eternally grateful. I don't by any means think I'm the best or anything in that realm; I'm just grateful to be able to pick up a paint brush or use my fingers to apply paint to a canvas, eventually designing something I'm proud of at least for a minute.