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Phase Three Italy: Arriverdeci
Who wants to face the end of a beautiful and most inspiring holiday? But I have to say this has felt like the longest holiday. It was that fourth week we terrifyingly committed to, fearful of leaving our beautiful Queenscliff Gallery that made the [...]
Phase Two Italy: Settling in
I'm settling into the routine now: walk, draw, eat, drink, rest, and start again. This is what I like to call work/life balance. As I mentioned in Phase One Italy: Nurture, an artist never stops working, but it's a joy in this environment, especially if/when the work created sells. Some added bliss to this trip is that I can enjoy short journeys, whether by car or Italy's fabulous rail system. For example, Montepulciano is a 40-minute drive from Cortona, where Theo and I are based. I can't get to Melbourne from Queenscliff in that time, and the road is nowhere near as picturesque or stimulating.
Phase One Italy: Nurture
After two years of trying to realise this Italian adventure, we arrived in Milan on September 5th, albeit with heavy hearts from the loss of our mother (my mother-in-law) and, soon after, one of my dearest uncles. Feeling far from celebratory, we decided to skip Venice. We thought to first nurture ourselves, so we took a quick Milan tram ride for an espresso in the glorious Marchesi in Milan's Galerie Vitoria Emanuele II.
Art Demand
Demand is everything to every business person. I am a businessperson. I sell products, mainly art, so demand is everything to me. This is the one defining factor of a successful artist—demand. You might see artworks that are good, bad, excellent, and/or awful; none of that influences sellability. The buyer drives success. Commitment to an art piece—whatever its subject, execution quality, medium, size, shape, or form is what makes demand. This is how representation works. A gallery is a shop. The shop's audience calls the shots and defines the stable. If the audience doesn't buy the art, the shop closes. As an artist and gallery owner, I feel much pressure to perform and sell! I can't take up the precious space of another artist. This week, I received tremendous encouragement—I sold work before my December exhibition at Queenscliff Gallery (QG).
Welcome to my Soula Store
Artists need to be resourceful if they’re going to support themselves and satisfy a patron’s dream of owning one of their works. I often find myself gazing at some of my works and feeling sad at the thought of their destiny being ‘forever in [...]
2024 Exhibition Postponed
Well, that's life, isn't it? The perfect storm comes along and forces you to change all your plans. I've had great experience cancelling big plans and learned to be very adaptable. Emotionally, I've also learned to deal with these situations by planning something bigger and better ahead. And that I have.