I had a gallery representing my painting. For about 8 weeks. It was a local San Diego gallery run by two lovely young people who, it seemed, had come into some money. My painting buddy and I tried to help them out by referring the very best San Diego artists. You see right now this thing about the economy is pretty ugly... and a lot of really good artists have lost their galleries. So there was a veritable wealth of artists without gallery representation.

The whole saga started when my painting buddy called saying that she had a lead on a new gallery. So we went over and talked to the owner and decided that, what the heck, nothing else was going on in the art world right now, so we'd give it a try.

They framed up 9 of my paintings taken in on consignment... the framer was top shelf. They had an opening and a ribbon cutting ceremony. Business started walking right in the door and the outlook was rosy! I even sold a couple of things.

Yesterday a little after 11AM my painting buddy phoned with urgency in her voice. "Did you see that email?" No, I had not so I ran to the computer instinctively knowing that it probably wasn't good news. The email stated in just two sentences that yesterday was going to be the last day the gallery was open: the gallery was closing permanently. I was SHOCKED!!

Maybe you know and maybe you don't but there are scores of stories about how galleries close their doors and artists never get back the work or compensation for it. A truck simply pulls up in the night and ushers away all the contents of the gallery. So my buddy and I drove over there (OK, so I might have been speeding) and were relieved to find the gallery doors were open. Whew!

We parked right up close and loaded up our vehicles as fast as we could. That's what happens in the world of consignment art: if the gallery goes under... you run in and grab up your stuff. You never know when an angry owner or bill collector is going to wrestle you down for your own art.

Once my own work was safely in the car I went after my other friend's mixed media work and got them out. One other painter I know also had work in the gallery but my car was overloaded so I called her and left a couple of messages telling what happened and to get over there right away. My painter buddy loaded her van to the max and managed to squeeze in everything.

The owner shouted out nasty words about how she was going to sue us for the unpaid bills for framing. So after the art was secured we went back in and "made nice" while we negotiated the final framing bills. Never burn any bridges, I say... not only is it bad business, it's bad Karma.

I feel drained today. Too drained to paint and that's a real low point for me. But hey, I have my art back and it is nicely framed. Things could be way worse. I'm going for coffee. I'll be back on Monday.