A Rant About Galleries

At your favorite bar you'd buy drinks

At your favorite restaurant you'd buy dinner

At your favorite gallery you'd look for free crap?



I think everyone needs to be reminded galleries are a business. If you don't patron the business they can not pay rent, afford toilet paper, or provide wine and finger foods for you to stuff in your pockets. What's happening now is people are confusing galleries with museums. Yes they're a cheap date, yes they're good at acquiring talented thought provoking artists that you may have never run across, but they aren't a public service.



I've been doing art for a long enough timeline to see some really great places come and go. Luckily there are a few that survive wave after wave of being taken for granted. They do it tooth and nail balancing poverty and publicity.



In the age of right-clicking I think people have become too used to freeloading. How many H.R. Giger images are on facebook and how many people who use them actually bought one of his books? Artists don't tag their images out of narcissism, we do it because we find our art on flyers, album covers or even traced. We're glad you love our art, but can we go to your job and take what we want without paying?



My purpose of writing this is to put everything in perspective. Do you support the artists you like? Do you support the galleries that show them? or do you believe they'll always be there?Because they wont without your support. Be it a $2 postcard or $200 piece or art - show some love. Without your favorite local or international galleries - we'll be left with museums at $30 a ticket and no chips and dip for you.



There are galleries showcasing original works at every level. Here's some of my favorites:



http://www.hyaenagallery.com/



http://www.sideshowstudios.net/



http://www.psycho-donuts.com/



http://www.laluzdejesus.com/



http://www.kaleidgallery.com/



http://www.bodytribe.com/



http://www.sonyapaz.com/



http://www.nakedartusa.com/



http://www.myspace.com/muddycafesb



http://www.claudegallery.com/



http://www.eclecticcactus.com/



http://mintgallery.blogspot.com/



and many many more!

Extinction sucks





Those who support us - we love you because you get it. We just wish everyone else did.