I’m never sure what’s fair and what’s not, especially when it comes to my art. I was grateful to have reasonable expectations and outcomes for a recent open studio tour. At 73, with 40 years of making art behind me I think it’s fair to expect 100 plus visitors and sell at least $500 in work. Didn’t happen. I saw about 20 people and sold zero dollars worth of work. And that’s fair.
What I got instead was a miracle. Steve and I have known each other since we met teaching high school at a Title I school in Tucson, AZ. We hit it off and kept in touch after retirement, meeting every Friday for lunch at a local park. Our conversations went on well past the point where we each had already claimed other commitments.
Grateful Expecations and outcomes
“This stuff is great,” he said. Steve was zeroed in on my piece, “It’ll Be Alright,” a nine-panel quilt in pink and gold. He was there for my open studio event just an hour after I opened my makeshift gallery.
“It’ll Be Alright", includes two older girls guiding a legless, girl doll in the center of a nine-square multi-colored quilt. Various anatomical illustrations and a couple of woodshop how-to photos fill the remaining eight squares.
While neither an artist nor an art critic, Steve is, I trust, honest above all else. And so the miracle. It’s utterly unheard of to find someone who gushes over this work. The piece that Steve was referring to is a quilt of abstract acrylic colors. The quilt blocks are overlaid with imagery robbed from text published in the Fifties. “It’ll Be Alright” is one of the more mild pieces in my series, “Hollywood Squares Root Canal, From Abscess to Abstract”
The series isn’t an easy sell or even easy to look at. Other pieces in the series include images of teeth with gum disease-black and white photo transfers pasted over rainbow backgrounds. Other pieces include anatomical details only a mother could love. And, I could not be more grateful to have found someone who enjoys this work as much as I do.
Another fan, Kimberly, said just a single word to describe my work and confirm her fandom: “Wicked.” High praise in my book.
My Open Studio tour, The Plan
I prepared for this show opportunity with exceptionally low expectations. I expected it to not rain for the three-day event. I originally thought about showing my work outside. Unframed, with push pins stuck to a large piece of sheetrock.
Then I noticed the pass-through that divides our dining room from our living room. What if I filled in that opening with eight feet of painted drywall? The adjacent walls could be hung with work and the bifold door to the rest of the house marked “Private.” Voila, instant popup gallery. I expected my wife to say “NO.” We are both creatures of habit and our morning habit is enjoying coffee on opposite sides of the pass-through while bantering about current events. Also eating biscotti.
I promised to repair all the walls to their original condition and to not crash into the light fixture. My buddy Kyle and I installed the drywall without collateral damage and the space indeed served well as a mini gallery. Snacks, a signup book and small work fit nicely on our dining room table to center the room.
expectations and outcomes surprise
I also didn’t expect my signage to work so well as it did. My wife and I were streaming a crime drama and eating sandwiches for lunch as we do every day when suddenly she shushed me. “Is there somebody in the house?” she asked. My friend Paul Gold had simply followed my “Gallery” signs around to the back of the house and let himself in. Later, a group of three fans endeavored to not disturb me as I acted the artist at work in my studio. I had to race to catch up. Just like having a full time gallery only smaller and with strange kitchen smells.
Not alarming, just different. (I had no expectation when I taped those signs to a sawhorse and an ice chest how well they’d work to get people to my work. If only it were that simple with gallerists: “Walk this way, see work by a brilliant but under-represented artist”)
Open Studio Tour 2020
I actually didn’t know what to expect signing up for the Open Studio Tour 2024 sponsored by the Arts Foundation of Tucson And Southern Arizona. My last tour was in 2020 and it was virtual. I created a video uploaded to YouTube showing folks about my studio space only (35 total views) and then hosted a Zoom event the day of. It featured a roving iPad camera and a disembodied voice roaming all 150 square feet of my studio space. Prior to 2020 my only other open studio event was in 2004. Different location. There I gave away pothos plants in dixie cups labeled with my logo and website. Marketing is not my strong suit.
I also miscalculated the set up time ahead of my Saturday 10am launch. It’s about 9:30am on Saturday morning. I’m jamming hard to be ready at 10am when the tour begins and wonder if I still have time for a shower. I notice I’m ripe as hell as I reach to pushpin my work to the gallery walls. A washcloth under the arms and a swipe of deodorant might have to do. I sneak in a speed shower praying I don’t hear any early arrivals while draped in just a towel.
the art of letting go- expectations and outcomes
It’s now Thursday, almost a week since seeing Steve in my popup gallery on the first day of the tour. I want to wallow in the miracle and I’m debating how to word an email asking if he could puh-leeze tell me again how much he likes my work and more importantly, why. I think I was originally in a daze-glazing over as soon as I heard the words, “I really like your work.”
Within a day Steve responds with chapter and verse and apologies about his own memory. I’m resting easy and grateful knowing and trusting there are at least two other people on the planet who get my work.
The expectations and outcomes for my open studio tour created a sharp contrast in the real world. That rendered fairness a mute point when gratitude became the baseline. In the abstract I expected more of myself than I could deliver yet the outcome was more that I had hoped for. I am grateful now to know a little better about who my people are. Where to find more of them is still a mystery.