My husband and I are both self-employed and have both realized that sometimes it's just best to outsource certain activities that are not worth our time. For me, one of those activities is selling my work. I do a bit of my own internet marketing and the occasional mailer, but for the most part I rely completely on galleries to sell my work. I feel that at this point in my career (I have limited time with a toddler at home), my time is best spent when I'm working on making the best paintings I can do. Marketing one's own work takes a huge amount of effort, and I just don't have the time to do it at a level that would afford me the same # of sales as my galleries. I'd say about 85% of my sales are through galleries right now.

As for choosing a "dream" gallery, I've learned over the past couple of years that it's easy to be disappointed when you think a certain gallery is "the one" and then they don't live up to expectations. Likewise, some of the galleries I didn't think much about have been huge in selling and moving my career forward. I used to think it would be great to get into a Legacy or Trailside type gallery, but now I think I'd rather work with small galleries (less than 15-20 artists). The ones I have my eye on for down the road are prestigious but small and very choosy about their artists - tough to get into! I just feel like relationships are huge in the gallery world, and I'd rather work with a gallery that knows me well than be in one where I'm just another name on a huge roster of artists.