After eagerly sending out a launch email yesterday, a friend replied saying that I had forgotten to put my name on the website. Alas, I had!
I did have a personalised email on the site the night before, but issues with web hosting, domain hosting, name servers, domain servers, mail servers, SSL settings, MX details, A details, etc. (don’t worry, I don’t know what any of that means either) meant that I had to swap to a gmail account.
All is fixed now and charles@100thgallery.com is active, but I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself to those of you I haven’t met.
Like many people, when I finished high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Actually, I did know what I wanted to do. I wanted to paint, draw, and print but I couldn’t work out how I was going to make any money out of it when I couldn’t get a look in with any of the galleries.
So, I ventured out into the “real” world… I kept my two casual jobs, started a third, and went to university full-time. Whilst it didn’t all go smoothly (I failed my first semester and was door-knocking for a living), I ended up with an Organisational Psychology degree and was heading up Training & Development for telecommunications companies.
Fast forward another few years and I had completed my Masters in Adult Education (& Training) and was working in General Management roles. I did a three year stint heading up a business unit in Bristol, UK (a truly amazing experience) and came back to a GM HR role about two and a half years ago.
And there I was. I had a couple of degrees and 17 years of corporate experience up my sleeve. I had been with my employer for over 7 years and new opportunities for progression had dried up.
It was time to revisit what I really wanted to do… paint, draw, and print. Whilst I had continued to dabble in painting and drawing during the past years, it quickly dawned on me that the initial hurdles that I faced with exhibiting my work in galleries would still be there.
So, rather than rely on other galleries to exhibit my work, I decided to open my own. And rather than exhibiting my own work, I would exhibit other artists work. Emerging artists shouldn’t have to delay their dreams and they shouldn’t have to work in the corporate machine before attempting them.
One hundredth gallery aims to provide a space for artists to exhibit their work, but more importantly provide the opportunity for artists to give their craft a red-hot-go with the aim of making a living out of it.