This afternoon we went to meet a friend of my wife at the South Square gallery, and looked at my exhibition there together. I have had some appreciative remarks in the visitors’ book, but no sales as yet. Another colleague was the invigilating the gallery and she was very encouraging in her comment. Nevertheless, for some reason I came away from the encounter feeling rather deflated. While cooking dinner tonight I began to ask myself whether my expectations of response to my work are inappropriate.
I suppose that it is probably a “professional deformation” of most, if not all, artists, that we hope for (even expect) a rather more positive response to our work than we actually receive. You don’t need to entertain hopes that you will be acknowledged as a “great artist” in order to suffer from this syndrome. It just seems to be a ubiquitous part of the experience of making art and putting it in front of the public.
The question concerns me, however, as to how one does settle on a realistic and appropriate set of expectations about the value of what one does.