Is your art any good?
Last week, I picked up my art from a gallery, ending my official representation, but leaving things open for future collaborations. This was a choice that took me months to make.
My living room is filled with boxes of art, and there are panels leaning up against all the furniture. All of these collages were made over the past three years, leaving me feeling that I’m attending a retrospective of my own career.
As I started unpacking the boxes, the questions began:
Why didn’t they sell?
Are they terrible?
Which style is mine?
Which are the best?
Why does my family like the ones that I don’t like?
What am I going to do with all this art?
Should I sand them down? Burn them?
Which ones do I want to show again?
And the most important question:
Who decides if art is good?
I’m not sure artists are in the position to decide if their art is good. (And what does that even mean?) There are many official gatekeepers in the art world: historians, museums, critics, and art galleries. But most artists don’t get that far and deal with the other gatekeepers (and there are many more of these). Those are family members, friends, local art organizations, and social media.
And the worst critic? The most tricky gatekeeper?
The artists themselves.
I look at this gallery of my work and my first reaction is noticing all of the choices I wished I hadn’t made. Then someone else will look at the same pieces and tell me that they love those same choices, which is confusing. What’s an artist to do?
There is someone out there who will love your work. Just because a piece hasn’t been admired, or sold, or accepted into a gallery doesn’t mean you should consider the piece a failure. If you despise everything about it, well, maybe that’s a sign that you should sand over the panel or have a small bonfire, but otherwise, just give the piece some time.
For example, this collage, Early Childhood is from my most recent collection. I thought it was going to be one of the first pieces to sell because it’s been so admired on Instagram (4,000 likes, 293 saves, and 63 comments).
But it’s still available.
This makes me wonder about my pricing, photography, and marketing or whether my followers are just clicking buttons without really meaning it.
What I should be thinking is that the collage just hasn’t been seen by someone who really, really loves it and is in the position to buy it.
Be patient. Keep showing up and making the art. Don’t destroy your work if no one compliments it right away, or even when you start to doubt that the piece is good. Just wait. Make more art and show it to the world.