How People Find Art—and Sometimes Come Back for It

One of the things I’ve learned from showing my work is that buying art doesn’t always happen the first time someone sees it.

Sometimes people discover my work at a gallery or art festival and buy something on the spot. But just as often, they remember it. They follow along. They see the work somewhere else. And sometimes, months later, they come back.

This summer gave me a few wonderful reminders of how those connections happen.

Back to Rittenhouse Square

In June, I returned to Philadelphia for the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show, one of my favorite places to exhibit.

I love being in the middle of Center City, surrounded by artists, collectors, residents, and people who simply happen upon the show while walking through the neighborhood.

This time, some of my favorite moments weren’t necessarily sales.

Two couples who had purchased pieces from me at Rittenhouse the previous fall stopped by just to say hello and tell me how much they were still enjoying the work.

As an artist, that’s pretty great to hear. You create something alone in the studio, eventually send it off into the world, and rarely get to see what happens next.

Then there was a couple I’d first met months earlier at ArtiGras in Florida. They had seen my work there but hadn’t purchased anything.

When they learned I would be exhibiting at Rittenhouse, they came to Philadelphia specifically to see me again—and this time they bought a piece.

That’s a long way from Florida to Philadelphia for a second look.

Sometimes It Starts in a Library

Another piece found a home this summer through a completely different path.

A couple from Weston first discovered my work at my solo exhibition at the Wellesley Free Library. They liked what they saw, but there was no immediate purchase.

Later, after completing some painting and changes in their home, they came back to the work with a particular place in mind: their kitchen.

The Long Conversation

Experiences like these have changed how I think about exhibiting my work.

Of course I want to sell paintings when I’m at an art fair or exhibition. That’s part of making a living as an artist. But I’ve also learned not to think of every encounter in terms of whether someone buys something that day.

Someone might discover my work at a library exhibition in Wellesley, see me again at an art festival, follow what I’m doing online, or read one of my newsletters. Months later, they may encounter the right piece at the right time.

That’s one reason I continue doing so many different kinds of exhibitions.

Each one introduces the work to a slightly different group of people. And every once in a while, someone who first walked into my booth as a stranger comes back as a collector.

That’s one of my favorite parts of doing this.

Meanwhile, Back in the Studio

Between shows, I’ve been spending more time experimenting in the studio.

Pattern and repetition have always been central to my work, but lately I’ve been playing with new designs, markings and surface textures—looking for ways to push familiar geometric structures somewhere new.

Some of those experiments would eventually become part of Patterned Worlds, my August solo exhibition at Ali Gray Gallery in Provincetown.

That’s another thing I’ve learned about this process: while finished work is heading out the door, there’s almost always something new taking shape back in the studio.