Marketing Mondays: Two Nasty Flavors

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“Taste” is a word used to describe one’s esthetic preferences. Art and the people who make, show, curate, sell or acquire it have many degrees and levels of taste. But today I want to talk about flavors.

Two flavors that artists deal with are sour and bitter: We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t taste them sometimes, but you don’t want to get to the point where you find them poisoning your practice and overtaking your life.

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These flavors have many subtleties
. The juror/curator/dealer is an idiot, because they didn’t select you or your work
. Who cares if you didn’t get in; it wasn’t worth much anyway
. If you did get in, it can’t be that great an opportunity
. Someone else got the show/award/grant because they are white /black/some other color in between; male/female; younger/older. In other words, whatever you’re not. There’s no denying the isms in the art world, but sometimes it really is "all about the work"

. You believe it's never what you do and always who you know—but you're convinced that networking is a waste of time

. You're convinced you lost out on yet another opportunity because someone didn’t like you (probably not true, unless you’re a blowhard jerkoff)
. The art world sucks
. You take pleasure in another’s failure—the artist who gets dropped from a gallery or loses out on the grant for which they were shortlisted, the gallery that closes its doors, and so on

“Compare and despair,” says my friend Jackie Battenfield who knows art careers like nobody’s business. Her advice: There’s always someone who has more, so respect and appreciate what you have achieved.

How do you deal/have you dealt with those nasty flavors in your own art life? (If you post anonymously you can share every last detail . . . )

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Images from the Internet, here and here