From the Wooster Collective: How do you know when it’s done? Plus, what would Ed Winkleman do?

The WC asked the first question on its Facebook page and posted some of the answers on its blog.

John: When your sick of nit-picking at it.
Puppet Industries: When the cops catch ya.;)

Nick: You never do, that’s why it’s a piece of art.
James: When your mum calls you down for dinner. (Note from Wooster: Our favorite!)
Frank: When the check clears.
Josh: When it starts to piss me off.
Logan: When I ruin it.
Dan: When somebody loves it.
Angel: When you are scared about putting something else in it.
Victoria: 10 years later.

I especially like, “You never do, that’s why it’s a piece of art.”

It’s a fun list, but artists already know those answers. More useful is Edward Winkleman’s advice on how to secure gallery representation. Everybody says to approach only those galleries that show work on the same wavelength as your own. Winkleman adds the important footnote: You can’t play me-too to an artist already represented there, nor can your work appear to undermine the program.

Is what you do too close to
what someone already in the program is doing and/or does what you do
conceptually or aesthetically conflict with what someone else in the
program is already doing. For (a lame, but simple) example, if an
artist in the program is arguing that identity art is dead and you make
identity art, the odds are not good the gallery will want to undercut
all the work they’ve done to build a market for that other artist by
exhibiting your work.

This is good info to tuck away and use later. Trying to get a gallery right now is like taking a long walk off a short pier. The only reasonable move for the vast majority of the unrepresented is DIY, such as, in Seattle, Crawl Space, Punch Gallery and Soil Art Collective. Get a group of like-minded artists together, open a space and declare yourself something.

Nobody tackles the business end of art galleries with the insider depth and generosity of Mr. Winkleman. Here’s a topic I’d like him to address: What do artists do when their galleries don’t pay them? What recourse is there for artists who agreed to a 50/50 split and instead see a zero return, because the gallery (in trouble), is spending their money?