Sounds like, at least for some, Art is moving away from Galleries and Dealers - according to The Gaping Void in a post titled desertmanhattan update that my friend, Valeria Maltoni, brought to my attention yesterday.

I’ve met Hugh Macleod a few times, though I don’t know him well, and while I’ve never really been his fan, and probably won’t ever be, I think he says some things that need to be said, they’re some of the same things I have been thinking and saying, but in some cases, Macleod has said them more eloquently:

For one thing, Hugh Macleod has explained why hardly anyone can sell their work

“…The artist doesn’t determine the price of the work. The re-sale value of a price determines the price of the work. If the perception exists that the work will be significantly more valuable in five or ten years, paintings are easy to sell. Without this perception, it’s damned hard to sell a painting, even if the potential customer falls in love with it.“

Well, there it is … without the “market” to establish value, most Artists, who can’t market or have hired the wrong people to market for them, are pretty much ….. well, on their own - to say it nicely.  You can’t sell something if there’s no one to sell it to.  Since the value of art is set by demand, which in turn, is controlled by dealers, which in turn is fed by Museums and Collectors - it’s a closed circuit loop, and if your not in the loop, your out of it - period.

“… An artist is about as good example of a “Global Microbrand” as you can get.

Right, and who cares about “microbrands”?   People are so filled up with information these days, it’s really hard to get pass all the walls people have put up - to defend themselves from the demands for attention.  And who needs “attention” the most?    Artists - they hunger for it - but with so much noise out there, it takes something really “loud” to even be noticed, else, your invisible.

“….I don’t need a gallery; I have a blog.” I’ve been approached by a few gallery owners over the last couple of months about doing a show. So far the conversations have gone nowhere. So far I’ve yet to meet a gallery who can sell a painting better than my blog can. Gallerists talk a lot; they’re not quite so fond of putting down financial guarantees in writing.”

How true … how very true.  I can’t say it’s worked that way for me, but then, I’m really ambivalent about selling my work and now, showing it.  I need to figure out what the next step is which I wrote about in Yet more thoughts about painting when it’s hard to paint- and for now, till I get the next vision of where I need to go with my work, I’ll continue to sketch, when I feel the need to and also paint, perhaps on my iPhone, via graphics software.