HOME - Made by Mikey at my little art gallery

Everything getting so wacky over here. We've been having these markets on weekends. Maybe too frequently. There's a lot of drama to expunge here, but some of it can't really be said just yet. I will say, that I'll be taking a step back from that aspect of being at the gallery all week. Not because I can't handle the curfuffle, but because I'm at odds with one of the organizers and would like to distance myself. It's probably for the best that I slow down anyway. I've been getting sick a lot this year.

But anyhow, we just opened a show for Made by Mikey, AKA Michael Giel - my own partner. Yes, he's a nepo hire. Lol. But in the very beginning, when we were just opening, the only people I could get to fill this space were close friends and relations. We're in a depressed location, and building trust is a slow process.

That said, it was difficult to get people out to these first shows. They got the novelty bonus, but they lost points for being unknown. So I've offered all my original artists a second chance as we're building this space up.

It's still very challenging to get people to come out. Sometimes it's downright dispiriting how few people have it in them to come support their artist friends. For free. And I'm not talking about low-effort or underdeveloped skill work. I'm talking about crisp, high-skill, sometimes even well-connected artists. When you get a great turnout, it's fabulous. It doesn't even matter if you end up making too many big sales. I mean, we're definitely in the hole on this one, but that's generally to be expected at the moment. People often come back later if they can't stop thinking about a piece.

For instance, he sold one of his pieces a couple weeks after his first show to someone who couldn't make it to the show in person, but saw it in one of our online posts. SOMETIMES, it even takes people seeing it a few times before they realize they just really want to have it. Such was the case with a piece I sold last year called Kintsugi Heart, featuring a realism-style human heart with threads of gold filling cracks throughout.

Hopefully this isn't coming off really whiny. This show just launched, so assuming I can make myself sit down and post throughout, I have tons to show you. With extra incentive, because I get to show off my partner's work.

And it's getting late in the day now, so I need to sign off. I wish you all happiness and love!

~Rachel