Question: How do I get my work seen?

You cannot accept defeat. There is never a no. You can’t really take in a no. Maybe sometimes you have to maybe accept a “not right now” or a “not yet” but it’s never a no.

If you throw something on the wall, people are going to say what they do and don’t like about it. But it’s hard to do that if you don’t put anything on the wall.

A lot of times, people are on each other’s radars, but they’re both too shy to say something. Sometimes if I like someone’s work on Instagram, I send them a direct message, like, “Hey, I love your stuff.” Just reach out to them and ask them to get coffee or something. Most of the time, they’re going to be so psyched that somebody likes their work and wants to meet up in real life.

It’s more like you are an artist, this is what you do, this is what you have to do, this is what you naturally do. And you’re going to do that in any way that you can. So what you end up doing is if certain doors are closed to you, you find other ways of making work and sharing work and applying that work. All you’re trying to do is do what you naturally want to do and you’re naturally inclined to do, which is make art and share it.

I like to visualize things in micro steps. And if it’s something that a billion other people that have done before me, I’ll look and see, what does their CV say? What exhibitions have they been in? Who have they shown with? What collections are they in? Looking into these things will give you hints of possible trajectories you could take, and possible approaches.

I’ve been applying for residencies, grants, or thinking of some sort of work exchange. I have a folder dedicated to rejection where these things have been going so far. I like looking at it every once in awhile, to remind myself how much I’m trying.

There’s never any time lost. Even something you might think of as a mistake or as a failure is really just you collecting material or information that could be rearranged or re-applied differently to get a successful outcome.

It’s definitely a good idea to create a network of other people that are doing what you’re doing so that you can test out ideas, ask them what they think of things, etc. You often need honest, open criticism of what you’re doing.

You go where the work takes you and you embrace opportunities as they present themselves.