Toronto art galleries - help get me discovered in my lifetime

[kramus]

So I'm a guy with some artistic ability. So I have some finished pieces. Pencil and Pen & Ink mostly. Time for me to start knocking on doors in the Big Smoke. I've emailed a few places and submitted a package (self addressed stamped envelope included) to a few others -polite disinterest among those who did mail anything back. Now what I am looking for is a concrete set of names/galleries that I can try to interest in my work. I don't want a co-op - I have no money (really, I have no money ) and I live 75 minutes out of the city when the traffic is good, and I work full time punching a clock in a factory. So I'm looking for a gallery that takes consignment work. Or buys the stuff, whatever, just need some turnaround and dollar value here folks. Yes I am an amateur, but the time I spend on my work shows real value -I am not interested in going the cheap give-it-away-so-I-can-say-I-sell route. Really, is there a gallery that is reasonably high-end/tries to get the artist known/sold? I am really really hoping for feedback, so please TO art-knowing type people . . .

To see what sort of stuff I do look here. The first one has a link to an Adobe writeup I made - some of my more involved work has writeups. I plan on doing a bit of rework on that end of it after my TFP experience but I do consider it part of the package I'm trying to sell.

threads I started with my artwork:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=87843
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=85325
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=84810
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=84813

threads I participated in:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=84867
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=87919
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=86629
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=87478
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...6&page=2&pp=40

[Janey]

Have you considered the various arts and crafts shows? I know that some (like the One of a Kind) have artists displaying their work. But then again , the time involved, plus the cost of exhibiting may not be workable.

[Charlatan]

I was going to suggest the same thing... There are all kinds of fairs and festivals every weekend throughout the summer both in the city and out.

The other thing you should consider is doing freelance illustraion. Get a portfolio together and send it out to graphic design houses, magazines, etc. There are places all over North America that are looking for freelancers. You don't even have to leave your house to do it. I have a friend that did it for a little while.

[inhalo]

There is no one way to answer this....and really no easy way either. I think before I can really give any educated suggestions for you I would need to know more about your art, art training, and what exactly you are giving to the galleries.

First off if you do not have one....you need an artist statement. If you have one please post it here so we can see exactly what the galleries see. If you don't.....well start working on it.

I am not personally a gallery artist....for a variety of reasons....but I am in a circle of friends who are. I am going down to Chicago next weekend to see an opening for one of them.

Whichever road you take... being an artist is very (emotionally) difficult. I freelanced for a while but the market is flooded with freelancers. Galleries are hard to get into......a lot of stuff doesn't sell....and if it does.... the gallery takes a huge chunk of it.

Be prepared to hit some walls.

[kramus]

Janey and Charlatan - I think I would have to take the step of leaving my job if I was going to try the shows. Otherwise I just wouldn't be able to swing the time and such. Before that happens instead I would have to find some agent who would handle things for me.

An agent - there are such animals aren't there?

as to my stuff that I did have in my packages Inhalo ...

(Not a curriculem vitae ...)

What you have here is a selection of line and pencil work I have produced. I am a 1957 issue man who wants to make use of his time and ability. In my youth I acquired 2 years of a B.F.A. at York University in Toronto. After getting married in 1980 and during the raising of my 4 children I have enjoyed various gallery and community college design, drawing and drafting classes. Since 1997 I have worked as a computer pre-press artist with a point-of-purchase manufacturer. I have had some drawings accepted in a few regional juried shows starting with the Glenhyrst Annual Juried show of 2002. Please let me know if you find some value in what I have here.

Sincerley .....

---------

Artist Statement

There is a fundamental importance in being conscious, of having awareness and in bearing witness to the texture of life. Discrimination of elements and their apparent interaction is necessary for a functional appreciation of the immensities the universe presents to us. These elements are pre-disposed by the very act of their separation to have proximity and relationships. Discrimination is a foundation or leverage point which allows manipulation of our universe as appreciable and perceivable. forms. There is energy in proximity. The cusp where differences merge and arise generates something very special. This special something is the essential place where potential is realized - the creation of the possible and the knowable. These discrete forms are realized as the textures in our life.

We meet the world on many levels. Our bodies are contained within a skin alive with contact. We share our water with the world as our skin regulates the interactions between our metabolissm and our environment. We breath in and exhale. Light and heat are only two of the most obvious energies which we need and use and share and build with. Where one object ends and another begins is increasingly a matter of definition. A conscious discrimination between causes and effects is required to create our personal spaces. Our socialization and our biology presdispose us to modalities of perception and analysis. These modalities are subject to change as our understanding of ourselves and our world changes. We know that there is an exquisite refinement in the way we have been introduced to our universe. The concrete world we lay our hands on and feed our bodies with also has places for the mind and the spirit.

I am interested in beginings, in journeys and in relationships. Time is fleeting - an eternal moment which lays a trail of acknowledgement and realization. The future is pure possibility framed by our ability to lay questions upon answers. The creative act is truly a potent thing. To participate in a piece of art allows me to bind my own time in a manner that can be shared. My wonder and witnessing and whimsy form my own trails between things realized and things that may yet come to be. Making art is a process which continues passt the arbitrary point of completion. I thank the audience for their time spent with my art. There is a sharing of value and time dedicated to consideration when that happens which is very important to me.

..... and what I do ......







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