The Collective Conscious

My work is being considered for a gallery show next week. The three pieces I submitted as a response to Driftwood Salon’s submission call sparked some interest and I am over the moon. The Open Studios I participated in last week went well—I sold a very small drawing of sentimental value to a woman who it just felt right to sell to. Selling work is important, it is our bread and butter after all, but selling to the right kind of people is even more important. And this is why I particularly enjoy the open studio setting where I am able to meet my buyers (and non-buyers) in person and have an honest conversation about almost anything—mostly about their lives and what brought them to the studio.

I’m not saying that genuine conversation between artist and buyer can’t be had elsewhere; only that there is something less contrived about a simple transaction between artist and buyer in this kind of setting—no intermediaries, no marketing pitches, no cheating. It is definitely more empowering for the artist, and perhaps even the buyer. I say this having very little experience of selling my art outside a commercial gallery space. Most of the paintings I have sold were done through a gallery. For the most part, I am unable to tell you where these paintings have ended up.

The Collective Conscious is a great NY Times article from way back in 2006 which touches on the artist collective and new forms of art exhibition and engagement. The Driftwood Salon would fit right under this category since it is run by artists for artists, to put it simply. The artist collective is not a new phenomenon and has been pushing the boundaries and shifting the landscape of the art world for some time now, evidenced by the date of this article. The statement made about the impact that artist collectives are having on traditional commercial galleries is still very accurate:

“It may undermine the cult of the artist as media star, dislodge the supremacy of the precious object and unsettle the economic structures that make the art world a mirror image of the inequities of American culture at large.”