Green Crab Artwork by Christina Kostoff in my gallery

Today's feature for the Green Crab Project show, is this one. Christina had a show last year in August, and the owner took to her style immediately. He likes texture and three-dimensional aspects. If I can get a sculpture show in here sometime, I think he'd lose his mind. I've had one or two sculpture artists sort of consider it, but they seem harder to convince than painters and photographers. Probably a matter of transport if I had to guess.

For this project, he offered to "commission" artwork at "wholesale" price from a few different artists. The idea is to pair artwork with his Green Crab product as it launches. We're a little bit ahead of the official launch with this show, so he's not pushing it too hard with his clients.

I think secretly, he doesn't care if he resells/recoups the cost of the pieces the commissioned artists were paid. I think, even though he doesn't see himself as someone knowledgeable about art, he feels very connected to the pieces he's bought, and probably doesn't truly care if anyone ever buys them off of him.

I had asked him recently if he was going to invite his clients to the show. He said no. He said, 'they'll basically sell themselves when the product launches'. Well. I hope they do. They'll certainly have a better chance of finding their people within a relevant context.

At the same time, I think I may be entering another phase of peach ego (easily bruised). I've been getting better at sales, I've been working at relationships, I see who comes to the shows, or even just comes in to the gallery. I see what they're drawn to, and I'm usually able to tell what they might want to know more about from what they spend the most time looking at. At the vendor markets, I can even often tell who wants to be talked to, and who just wants to browse in anonymous silence. Not always, but often....... And then I get experts telling me what will sell here, and that there should be lower price points for the market crowd coming in.

It doesn't matter that we DO have accessible art here. Prints as low as $5. It doesn't matter, because for whatever reason, people don't COME IN during markets. We get a handful of people over the weekend. It doesn't bother me. I know they're not here for me. What bothers me is the assumption that I'm doing it wrong by people who don't even see what's going on. And NO, I'm not telling my artists to lower their price points. Not a chance.

SO yeah, this is the first time in my life that I can see myself nosediving into one of these emotional phases, and now I have to figure out how to swim so I can get out of the pool. @_@

But also, I've completely meandered away from Christina's piece here. She runs a framing gallery in the East end of the city called Yellow House Framing. It used to also be a gallery, but she didn't find the art sales aspect viable where she was. Too much difficulty with artists, not enough sales to justify the work. And it IS work. She gave me some of the best kudos I've gotten here to date after her show.

All but one of my shows have had at least one sale. I think the average is three. In the first year of an art gallery, she said, that's amazing.

I am glad.