From Art Collecting to Art Connecting
No formal training. No art degree. No pretentious gallerist aura. Apparently that was exactly what was needed.
I started an art agency in 2020 with two artists. For nine months that's all it was: A side gig while I desperately tried to hold onto my day job as the world fell apart.
When the pandemic hit and schools closed, I was a single mom of four with a job that couldn't flex. I asked for accommodation; I was denied. I didn't leave to chase a dream, I left because I had kids to feed and something had to give. The choice was never really a choice. I chose my kids. Everything that followed came from that single decision.
I had been in fight-or-flight mode since my divorce in 2011. Long enough to know one thing with absolute certainty: If anyone was going to make it happen, it would be me.
I started making calls in October. I had a philosophy and I had a pitch. I believed the traditional gallery model was broken. Taking 50% or more of an artist's sale while they did all the work felt wrong. I wanted to be a pro-artist agent: Lower commission, real partnership.
I wanted to bring art into homes, not leave it in stark white galleries. To place it in real spaces: Living rooms and dining rooms where people felt comfortable and curious rather than intimidated. An environment where someone could fall in love with a piece by picturing it in their own homes
Not art collecting. Art connecting.
This resonated farther and louder than I ever expected because within three months I had more artists than I could handle vying for a spot in the agency. I went from two to nineteen.
In January 2021, during a global pandemic, I hosted my first showTwo sold-out viewings in a stunning 1920s craftsman house in downtown Dallas. I scouted the home for its location and look, negotiated with the owners to let me use it for an evening, took down every piece of their (extensive) art collection, and hung the walls with my artists' work"
When it concluded and we sat back to reflect, one of my artists shared something that has stayed with me. She said I had a silver bullet. That bullet, she told me, was the fact that I had no formal training, no art degree, and no pretentious gallerist aura. I was just a gal with a grand idea and the determination to support it.
Determination has a way of coming through when you need it most—like when a pandemic hits and you have four kids to feed.
When I had no other option, I wasn't afraid. I was determined. There's a difference.
What would you do if you had no other option but to bet on yourself?
