So for you, what have you learned, even from your own experience and from other artists, about what makes an artist feel welcomed?

What makes an artist feel welcome is if they walk into a gallery and the staff there greets them warmly and doesn't treat them snobbily like a big gallery in a big metropolitan area.

Uh, an artist feels welcome if the, uh, people at the gallery are responsive to them and look at their art, and if they find the art isn't what they're looking for for the gallery, if they, they, uh, make helpful suggestions about other places to go or classes to take.

That's what my staff and I always, always did.

I, uh, I always joke that we were also career counselors at the Art Association.

An artist would come in off the street with a portfolio.

Now they bring in their phones, and that's really handy to look at all their work.

So how did you protect your peace as an artist still?