Not a Single Painting Sold… Was My Art Show Worth It?

I actually didn't sell a single painting at my art show, but I also didn't expect to. I don't know what I'm doing, but we're having a blast. Last month was absolutely insane as I prepared for one of the biggest events of my life, my solo art show here in New York City. This exhibition celebrates the past 10 years of my work and represents so much more than just selling paintings. Money is a real aspect of life and also the agenda of this event, but we'll get into all of that later. In this video, I'm taking you behind the scenes, step by step, as I prepare for this unforgettable event, and by the end, you'll hopefully understand why this show was so important to me and perhaps different than your traditional gallery show. We got a lot of stuff to do today. As you can see, I'm not even close to being finished with this painting. I actually just woke up here, my nice little bungalow. It's not much, but it's home. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to go to a frame shop today, see if we can pick out some frames for a few pieces. It's a busy day. Then we also have the Studio Slough regulars coming tonight because I need to do a photo shoot of the Studio Slough setup because the bottom floor of the gallery show is like a group show for Studio Slough to showcase what I've done the last year. We got a busy three weeks straight until the show. I'm just making sure the pizza's not here. So yeah, there's a gallery show October 12th. It's two floors. So the top floor or the ground floor is all my work for the past 10 years. And then the bottom floor is all of you Studio Slough regulars. The overarching agenda is to raise money. So it is like a fundraiser. So that's why I want all your work just to be like, hey, this is what goes down at Studio Slough. There's work from you guys, an assortment of long pose, short pose, yada, yada. And besides explaining the flow of the art show to everyone and getting a nice drawing session. And of course, the point of gathering everyone at the studio was to take some photos to sort of stage the studio with extra good lighting for brochures and fundraising tools, which plays a part in this exhibition. And you'll see that later. On top of all of the logistics that goes into this show, I have been spending every waking minute on trying to finish this monstrosity of a painting. It's the biggest canvas I've ever purchased and the most complex painting I've attempted. I'm also filming and editing for the three-part series, which actually is already out by now. But yeah, a major balancing act and endless to-do list in these final weeks. I actually just got an insane amount of packages, which is perfect because the gallery show is in a few weeks and I needed all of this to get prepared. Hoodies, merchandise, brochures. It's all downstairs. And would you look at this beautiful site? Let's rip open a few of them to show you how beautiful these custom limited edition hoodies are. Certainly fit in the making for at least three or four months. Oh, yeah. Wow. These are actually folded pretty nicely. Wow, this is gorgeous. So these are super high quality stone wash or acid washed, double embroidered custom hoodies. You know, I'm only selling them at the Solo Art Show. And if they don't sell out, then I'll put them online, like in the beginning of November or the last week of October. And then these are filled with custom tote bags also, which I'll be selling. These are actually way more swag than I thought. Just like a really high quality tote. And 100% of proceeds from this show, by the way, is being donated to Studio Slew. So I'm not profiting off this. All this merch and the Kickstarter, which I'm doing, and all of that is going to Studio Slew. Hello, and I didn't sell out at the art show. So all the hoodies and totes are on my website, slewniverse.com. I knew I probably went and got some extras. For everyone watching the videos, if you want to get a really awesome hoodie or tote bag or bookmark, just want to say that. Thank you. Lots of other cool, really fun stuff to get prepared, like this Atomic Signs, this vinyl company. I'm printed out these humongous stickers for the gallery. I've never done it before. But this, to me, is what makes galleries super high quality and cool. Having really cool branded vinyl stickers and blurbs for context of the show. I'm also picking up 400 cans of Brooklyn Best not-too-sweet ice lemonade. I know the owner. It's local. So he's the homie and sort of sponsoring the bar section on Saturday. I'm making these frames. Just a lot of busy work. And we arrive actually four days before the show with a few of the Studio Slew regulars, Jacob and Nia, and my friends to go absolutely ham in the studio to prepare all these crazy things. Everyone who comes to the gallery show is getting sticker packs, brochures. Nia and Jacob are there to sort of go over the drawings that will be hung up. They're sort of curating the bottom floor. We're doing big sticker walls. Just a massive amount of stuff. I'm so happy I got my friends helping. We have four days left until the gallery show. I got a small army of friends behind me. We're putting together primordial packs. Every single person that comes to the gallery show is getting this pack, this folder, which comes with a Studio Slew brochure, which just talks about the first year of Studio Slew. It comes with this QR code and blurb talking about the art book for the Kickstarter, which you should go check out right now because there's only a few weeks left and 100% of profits from this Kickstarter goes to support Studio Slew. There's also like a blurb on the back talking about the show and the art. And then also every primordial pack comes with a sticker pack. Five epic stickers. And so we have just spent the last few hours training and factory lining all of these folders and sticker packs. And it's a joyous, joyous time. And for the past two hours, Sophie and Tori have been going ham on this sticker photo wall, which will be sort of on the gallery for people to take photos. It's just cool, fun thing. And it's all these holographic stickers of the primordial Medusa logo, which is very, very sexy, as you can see. Looks like an oil spill. So all around great night. I am so happy to have my friends help me. I couldn't have done it without them. We got everything I wanted to do done. It was all very tedious work. We probably spent three and a half hours straight. Nia and Jacob, you know, did a great job. They're curating the whole bottom floor. So they were getting real organized and taking a huge weight off my shoulders. We just got a lot done. And I think everyone realized how sort of cracked out and anxious I was because this was a big step, getting all of this done and doing it how I wanted. And it was just a crazy night, but super successful. And I fed all of my minions, of course. So three days left until the gallery show. I got these three oil paintings to varnish. If you could see up close, some of the pigments and oil dries in different sheens and satins. Varnishing paintings brings together all of those sheens into a homogeneous layer. It also is quite protective. These have been dry for well over six months, some over a year. So it's a perfect time to varnish. So I'm going to tape up these two wooden panels because I don't want varnish on these parts of the wood panel. And it's just going to be a fun time. They're going to look really, really, really, really, really sexy after. Now that looks nice and snazzy and fresh. Today is Thursday. Tomorrow, we're moving into the studio. And look who flew all the way from Seattle, Mr. Sunday Nobody. It's so happy. He's such a good friend for helping me. It gives me some relief. It's funny because like two years ago, exactly, I helped him with his huge event, his fake ID vending machine, which was this huge production. And now he's helping me. It's a big, nice story. And he's got on the swag hoodie. How are you feeling? Good, excited to be your helper. So we're going to start packing up some paintings and then load this U-Haul. And that's our job for tonight. This is my favorite one that you've done. I actually also really like the Gandalf one as well. There's a couple, but this is definitely one of my favorites. I'm holding it up like I painted it. I want to rant real quick about Sunday Nobody, the type of guy who is just there for the cause. He is my fixer. And what I mean by that, he understands the flow in the system and his role as a helper. There's no creativity or ingenuity or leadership. He's fully committed and agreed to being my helper. There's a lot of moving parts to get this show done. And a lot of it is just grunt work and tedious tasks and moral support. And he falls under that position. He is there for four days to help me with whatever I need. And his attitude is incredible. And that is a specific role that is easier said than done because he is a creative and a professional also with his own life and career and awesome art career. So putting himself in this role as just a passenger with big muscles and a giant smile is easier said than done. But that's what he's agreed to do. And it's amazing because he helps me so much emotionally and obviously physically with everything. And there's many other people who help for this entire project. But Sunday Nobody specifically flew across the country for five days just to help me. So that's pretty epic. This might be overkill, but I was just nervous because we have a lot of boxes, a lot of paintings. What do you think? Let's go. This is our second load. All right, these are our last sort of loose sleeve items. Now what we need to do is sort of title down so it doesn't wiggle waggle on our long journey to Manhattan. Time to go to Manhattan. We're bringing this oh so big U-Haul. It's going to be a devious ride, but we're all packed up and ready to goose. This is the calm before the storm. And it's not that calm because this is a giant truck and we're about to enter the metropolis of Manhattan. But take a second here to just be grateful, be excited, be happy. And we're on the way. Easily the most stressful part of the whole trip. Driving there, unloading all the paintings, making sure nothing broke, parking on a small street, causing a traffic jam. And then I had to drive it all the way back to Brooklyn to drop off because it was just a few hours that I rented it. But we made it. We got everything in. We have so many assets to hang besides just the painting. So we're all huddled up here. Nia and Jacob and Anna and Sunday Nobody. And it's a beautiful sight. Getting things ready. Minds moving. Clicking into place. And the circus is really beginning. But everything's in the gallery and that's the good news. All right, we're here. We made it. It's Friday about noon. We have all the paintings lined up. Come with me. We have some of the big vinyl stickers with the blurbs for the art show. And that's a short story. The squadron downstairs is setting up the studio slew area because it's a two floor gallery. Two situations. But the job now is to just find out placement for all the paintings and to hang them. But we first start with the big blurbs. There's a little order of operations. I don't know what I'm doing, but we're having a blast. Absolutely nailed it. Okay, well, here's the thing, dude. There's big audibles right now. If you come right now, how far away are you? Because I need to go back to the studio now to bring more paintings because I didn't bring enough. Just rip it like in one fell swoop. Wait, wait, actually, wait. Now that I think of it, you have your car, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, thank you. I smell them. I smell bad. Anything you're ordering on? The nerves are making me stink. Crazy audible. There's more space in the gallery than I thought. I'm going back to grab more paintings to fill the beautiful space. This was not in the schedule. This was not in the cards. But we're going to do it because more beautiful artwork must be shown. And so an audible can't stop me. And it was actually an important audible. Thank God I had my homie Sam come with his car. Him and Sunday Nobody and I, we lugged five more paintings to the gallery. Extremely vital. Not in the schedule, but it worked out for the best. And yeah, if you haven't understood by this point, this whole event and show is much more than just showing work. It's showcasing Studio SLU and the non-profit organization I started a year ago. What we've accomplished. Showcasing the work from the regulars. Nia and Anna are absolutely killing the downstairs. Those are the photos we took from the beginning of this video. Just to give more context for people who come and see if they've never heard or know what Studio SLU is about. But you know, this event is selfishly to showcase the 10 years of my artwork, which is the enthusiasm that also sparked and runs my YouTube channel. Trying to share my excitement and inspire people to make art. And then looking towards the future of Studio SLU, which is that same energy and enthusiasm to create a brick and mortar environment for artists to make art. So it's sort of this full circle idea and that's the point of this whole show. And yeah, and it's just a pop-up. It's only two days. Not normal in the gallery tradition, but that's what we're doing. So we're keeping on and this is where things get a little tricky with these vinyl stickers. Yeah, so we're peeling off the vinyl stickers here and they're kind of sticking to the paper a little bit. So we have to painstakingly make sure that it stays on the wall letter by letter. Yeah, there's quite a few of them here. So we're having a good little talk in the meantime. That's a wrinkle in the system, but it's just elbow grease to get it done and we will get it done. But everything else is going pretty smooth. The only worry is that's like two big paragraphs and the short story that is printed out is like five paragraphs. So we might have to just triple elbow grease that one. This is our last giant story. It is not going so well because the texture on the wall is preventing the sticking of the letters. These are a little bit bigger letters, but a lot more paragraphs. So we are praying that it goes smoothly. Exactly 51 minutes to do this whole thing and we're on the last word. And I only had this gallery for three days rented. So Friday we had to set up everything. I think it was a 12 hour day. Nia, Jacob and Anna absolutely killed it. They were there the whole time. I couldn't have done it without them. Very necessary to do it in one day, but a lot. I'm here alone. It's about 9am, Saturday of the show. I finished hanging all the paintings. It's looking pretty great. It's kind of exciting being here alone with all of the art from the last 10 years of my life. Pretty much all I've been doing the last 10 years is making these paintings and making videos of these paintings. But there's still a lot to do. We got to set up the whole bar. A lot of people are coming to help out. I got to change all of the lights to face the paintings properly. Most of them are good, but you can see like this one, there's no light hitting it. And by gosh, that deserves some light. You know what I'm saying? The little story zone. Really epic. Today is going to be crazy though. So trying to chill and relax before the circus begins. I did switch up all of these self-portraits to be more spread out over here. So that was a little change from yesterday. And then we got the corner over here. These are artwork information tags. You know, they have a name. Can we cut? I think they're just like the name, the price. And so we're trying out this double stick goop. All of these cards have the prices for about half of the paintings that I priced. None of them did sell, but I will talk about that at the end of the video. We still have some work to do this day of the gallery. Jacob is doing a great job finishing these diabolical vinyl stickers. Jacob is also like Sunday nobody, just a fixer there to do anything I need and help with. He's an awesome artist and has a YouTube channel where he interviews people and paints their portraits. So definitely check that out. It will be linked. But finally, with the help of everyone, we're looking good. I smell bad. We're an hour out. Things are pretty good. I'm waiting for my mom to come to bring me a colored shirt. And that's pretty much it. And the bar is getting set up and it's very exciting. I've been at a increased heart rate for like the past week, but it's all coming together and it's great. Chris behind the camera, old homie. He's going to get the sexy shots of the whole show. So nothing but love, joy, and I'm still nervous. Slusif, I'm so proud of you for this amazing art show. This represents a decade of incredibly hard work. The art book, the art show, the freaking not-for-profit school you put together. Proud of you, brother. Onward and upward always. Can't wait to see what you do next. I'm super proud of you, Sam. I was talking to your mom. She is so proud too. Your whole family's so proud. And this is just amazing. You keep pulling off stuff that I didn't think was possible. And this is incredible. So congrats to you. So this night was just overwhelming. I had friends flying in. I had family members flying in. Everyone who I sort of ever loved was there to support me and celebrate. And even the people who came who I've never met, fans of the YouTube videos, people who have gone to just one class of Studio Slough, everyone stayed there for hours and talked. And it was just kind of like a big community event, celebrating the idea of painting and artwork. And, you know, the paintings, none of them sold. I didn't expect them to. You know, all of these paintings I love more than anyone. You could look back in this video. I put pretty crazy prices. And I knew the people coming to the show weren't the type of people to buy a painting for $5,000. Of course, everything has a price. But that wasn't the agenda. The agenda was to showcase, you know, the work. It wasn't even a new body of work like traditional gallery shows. It was a celebration. It was awareness. You know, fundraising and throwing fundraisers is a pretty normal thing for nonprofits to do. Which Studio Slough is? A not-for-profit organization, tax-exempt. And, you know, I was funneling everyone with the primordial packs to the Kickstarter. All of the social content I've made has been, you know, pushing people to the Kickstarter and the merchandise. And that's sort of the power I have as like a YouTuber, a social media person is to use the fans and people who watch the videos to support the nonprofit. That's just one way, you know, you could raise money. It's crowdsourcing. It's nothing new. And then sort of from this event, you know, I could take the money or at the end of the Kickstarter, it's already at like $21,000 by all the end of manufacturing. I'll probably walk away with $15,000 or so to be donated. And I could use that for the prospective donors that I will be reaching out to personally, you know, sort of as like the impetus as the nest egg being like, hey, this is what I raised already this past year. This is what we're looking to do in the future. This is how much money we need. That's like sort of a normal business strategy or optics of fundraising. You know, there's no rules anymore. I was thinking about this while I was editing this video and not that there were ever rules with art, but, you know, everyone thinks you need to do this and that to be a gallery artist or a fine artist. You need to get this certain pedigree to reach this level of success. But, you know, I've just always done whatever I thought was interesting, painting traditionally, doing graffiti and making YouTube videos about it. And then, you know, starting a nonprofit organization and throwing this, you know, event was just the same sort of idea. YouTube versus traditional artists. Can you be both? Can you not be just one? There's just no rules. So I've just, I just want to say like, if you're interested in pursuing anything and there's all of these like thresholds and pillar of nepotism or like elitism within whatever genre you are, I think we're at a point in the world, especially for painting and fine art, where they're like, those things sort of are dissipated and you shouldn't focus on that. You should just focus on doing something, you know, working hard, finding like-minded people and just doing whatever you want. And obviously being kind and trying to spread a positive message rather than something gnarly. But, you know, that's what I've found with Studio SLU and the community that has come out of it. And obviously from YouTube and social media and like the art world within that. So, gosh, don't want to rant too hard here. You know, the money side and just be fully transparent with the agenda of this show. You know, it was money to rent the space, the gallery, and there was a certain budget. And it's sort of like you're risking money to invest in this event and to make all this content and to make this art book and Kickstarter, hoping that the money you put into the event will trickle out in many different ways, get donors, future big donors to support in Studio SLU and other things to sort of make that money back or make it worth it. And it's hard to meter what is worth it. But, you know, this was like the first time I've ever did anything and balls to the wall, YOLO, and it was great. And I'm going to stop talking. That's all I got. I'm a little sick, actually. If you hear the rasp in my throat, you know, just like three weeks of not sleeping to that big event, and then I'm tired and I need to rest. But nothing's changing. More art classes, more YouTube videos, just maybe a week or two off.