Why I decided to go it alone,(Almost)

?? was the latest gallery to go, two sales in two years is not a good average, plus the majority of my work which they returned still had my original packing attached, where had my stuff been for two years? probably in their warehouse.These galleries have to move in order to win, but they are stagnant, and sleepy, and have favorites, and that's no good to me.The whole art thing, to me, (some one who has many years behind them), is the same as any business, "Marketing", a good sales person can sell art, or any commodity. Sure, there is a crisis, but lets not hide behind that for too much longer, the crisis should make us more eager, and fight harder, instead of talking about the good old day's.If we get real for a minute, how can our ego's be so great to let our work sit in our galleries waiting for someone to pop in, choose a piece of art, hand over a lump of cash, and then happily leave, that's not the real world any more, would you do this?,how many people do you know that would do this? none, or no body is the answer, today we have to go out and meet the clients, nurture them, advise them, and give them the treatment they deserve and, whatever it takes to help make a sale.?? for example have far too many artists, they wanted it all when times were good, big promises, but now what? they are left with an enormous amount of artists work laying dormant, giving the very few clients too much choice,which makes it all very confusing for them, and confusion leads to doubt.My advice to artist's, for what it is worth, is this, consider carefully where you place your work,visit the gallery, have a look around, try and have a chat with other artist's working with them,or, better still google them, see if there are any disgruntled artist's fuming out there, and if possible agree on some kind of contract, ( this is another story), plus don't be in any rush to tie up your stuff. Good, successful galleries are that, because they give as much as they get, they promote, and work together with their artists, and have a closed book on artist's, and a long wait for future show's.All the best.Chris.Christopher Stone.www.sculptormine.com