Blog #51
CREATIVE'S ROLLER COASTER FROM HELL.
First, I would like to apologize for the gap in weekly blogs. I won’t bore you with the gritty details, but rest assured, they are gritty.
So, is there anyone out there not trying to get scammed in one way or another?!? Scammers infiltrate every company, organization, human, and creative (we are also human) on the planet. ALL.THE.TIME! Talk about another roller coaster ride from the armpits of hell (there’s way more than one), well this is it!
“A GALLERY HAS EMAILED ME ASKING ME FOR MY ART!!!!”. Call the entire contact list, post news over the entire (out to the world FOREVER) internet, bask in the glow of everyone's overwhelming amount of congratulations (way more than any other post I might add), internally state that “mayyyyyyybe I’m an ok artist?????”. Well, recalling the armpit of hell referenced earlier (I’m not exaggerating in the slightest), you proceed to Google the Gallery and to your absolute horror tiny letters on the screen are forming the words VANITY GALLERY and you think “hmmmmm, that doesn't have the best ring to it…”.
To speed this up, “IT IS A SCAM”. Following (for months) is the painfully, slow, depleting, rocky road of self doubt, what’s the point, and F*&^ IT, I can’t create anymore!!”. For those of you who have not had the pleasure yet, you will be inundated with “GALLERIES” who claim to have stumbled upon your work and love it. They have to have it and you didn’t see one dollar sign in the whole email - you thought (same reaction as above). WARNING: They make more money from the artist fees (YOU) than they ever collect from selling actual paintings (YOU GET NOTHING). Thankfully, you have been privy to the limitless possibilities of the internet and 1.
The savvy computer users have caught on to their tactics 2. You probably have access to Google, and 3. you’re smart enough to sense a scammer (WRONG). I have fallen for this approximately FIVE times. Yes, I’m embarrassed and will fall for it many more times however, so blindly determined to move forward MUST.HAPPEN.AT.ALL.COSTS (independently assessed).
Also, remember that the word is out on scam galleries and serious and not-so-serious collectors know the artist is looking to “stroke his ego” (actual quote by a curator). I mentally scramble trying to remember if I had actually fallen prey to a Gallery parasite. Damnit! We suddenly remember we are NOT doing it for the glory, glitz, and accolades that we have learned will provide not a shred of internal satisfaction blah, blah, blah. For me, anyway. Ummmm, you know I’m full of shit by now, right?! Of course we (I) want all the glory, glitz, affirmation, security, satisfaction, validation, money or whatever else I think my art deserves. It’s all good, and normal and I will not always want that as part of my story, but today, I do. And I’m completely ok with that. Mind you, it’s always the passion driving the bus. If it wasn’t, I would suck.
The LACK of any of that will still find me behind an easel knowing (and feeling) these next few series of cumulative minutes will be some of the most satisfying, stimulating, and quiet (of the mind) moments of my life. Simply, because I stumbled upon or sought out art, or instinctually gravitated towards it, means I spent a chunk of my life just being OK. And that is all I EVER wanted and/or desperately needed. Oh, and for my personal coterie to feel the exact same way.
Stay badass and keep creating!