A Win Against All Odds

I'm posting because it might make you reconsider some opportunities.

A group of artists in my "rural" area (3 hours north of Los Angeles, meaning not "art centric") got together for a 3-hour pop-up show at a friend's converted barn into studio/gallery. The typical art scene is rolling hills of grape vines/landscapes and I'm abstract. We each paid the host $40 to cover costs and brought a bottle of wine. It took 2 people and 2 hours to install my work. It will probably take another 2 hours to take the work down. The show looked nice and was well attended.

Here's the win and the reason why I went to all this effort. I wanted to hear unsolicited comments about my work. Were they curious? Like the work? Were they engaged or did they walk away? I didn't know all the attendees so they didn't know I was the artist until the host introduced me. I got to eaves drop and the comments were very positive. One person said, "I can't leave. There's something new to always see." That person came back two or three times. They liked the scale. They wanted to know more about the work. Two people took pictures because they thought someone might want the piece in their home.

I'm encouraged and now more motivated to send the pitch proposal to certain galleries, specifically community college galleries. Moral to the story...maybe you do something that seems ridiculous with no ROI.