Leap of Faith - Opened A Gallery

Hello OPF Gang,

I haven't posted here much, but have been a big fan of what Asher has done with this site. I met Asher (by phone) a year ago when he called me one Saturday afternoon. We had never met, but we did manage to talk on the phone for well over an hour. In many ways Asher has been an inspiration since then.

I am a fine art photographer and on March 1st I opened my own gallery in Marshall Michigan. My lovely wife still thinks I'm nuts, but life is too short not to chase your dreams. I have dreamed about owning my own gallery for sometime and at age 52 I felt it was now or never. Now won and I said goodbye to the financial services profession. I have sold my work via my website and through other galleries and wanted my own place. Along with my photography I have given 25 other artists the opportunity to display and sell their work in a fine art gallery.

Although the gallery has only been open for 3 weeks, it has already been quit a journey. Here are before and after images.





I put the gallery together from start to finish in three weeks and we had 300 people attend the opening.

If you are in the Marshall area be sure to stop by the gallery. I am open Monday - Saturday from 10am -6pm. Check out the website at http://www.gallery105.com

'Hello, my name is Scott Buttrick and I am excited that I found OPF. I am glad to see a photography website that is dedicated to an intelligent, thoughtful discussion of photography. A site where there is a free exchange of thought and ideas intended to advance our understanding and knowledge of photography.'

So, you just pop in now and again, to advertise your web site, or gallery? Where is your contribution to intelligent/thoughtful discussion?

Thanks Ray for your thoughtful and intelligent question.

Next comment please........

Scott Buttrick said:

Thanks Ray for your thoughtful and intelligent question.

Next comment please........

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Hi Scott,

After re-reading my original reply, I have realized that it sounded rather harsh and thus has failed to communicate properly what I was actually trying to say. So I have taken the liberty of editing it while I still can. I apologize for this awkward situation.

You have become a member almost a year ago. Your first post was a promising introduction of yourself and your photographical background. I, for one, was (and still am) looking forward to having you on board as an active member.

After that, you haven't posted anything until 6th of Nov. 2007 when you had a new website up and you wanted our comments on that. I guess you've been very busy with something called life, it is very understandable. Since then we haven't heard anything from you until now about your new gallery.

Ray was possibly wondering why you've so far not had the chance of contributing in the forum whereas you yourself have originally written that you were looking forward to 'engaging in intelligent, thoughtful discussions of photography.

Again, I am still hoping that you'll make the time and join the discussions every now and then. You are very much welcome here at OPF.

Regards,

Cem

Scott Buttrick said:

....I am a fine art photographer and on March 1st I opened my own gallery in Marshall Michigan. My lovely wife still thinks I'm nuts, but life is too short not to chase your dreams. I have dreamed about owning my own gallery for sometime and at age 52 I felt it was now or never. Now won and I said goodbye to the financial services profession. I have sold my work via my website and through other galleries and wanted my own place. Along with my photography I have given 25 other artists the opportunity to display and sell their work in a fine art gallery.

Although the gallery has only been open for 3 weeks, it has already been quit a journey. Here are before and after images.

I put the gallery together from start to finish in three weeks and we had 300 people attend the opening.
....

Click to expand...

Hi Scott,

Already before I posted my previous reaction in this thread I was meaning to reply to your original post so here it is, FWIW.

Firstly, I think it is an incredible leap of faith indeed and I commend you wholeheartedly for taking this step. Following our dreams and giving up our mundane day jobs must be something which all of us have dreamt of at one point or another in our lives. Not everybody is confident enough to actually change anything, so mostly it remains a dream. So what you’ve done is a great achievement already no matter how things turn out to be on the long term.

How difficult was it renovating the gallery and refurbishing it? Did it take a long time? Have you done most of the work yourself or did you hire a contractor? These are the hard parts of the reality behind the dream, chasing it has never been easy after all.

I think that the place looks great on the pictures. It will be a stepping stone for many local artists in getting their work exhibited and sold, which is great. All in all, very well done.

May you be very successful in this new exciting venture!

With my best regards,

Cem

Welcome...

I must have missed your original posts myself. I too am 52 and have run my own financially related business for almost 20 years after a 17 year career in Banking. This last year, I built and opened my own studio as well. My OPF colleages have been very supportive to me during the last year while I decided what and how I was going to open and operate.

I understand your leap of faith, having done the same. I do hope you will join the fray here.

Hi Cem,

I do plan to become more active on this site now. Over the past year I have not been able to contribute much to any of the forums I belong to due to a two year photo project that I needed to get completed. I wrapped up the project last December and that was when I decided to open my own gallery. Between the day job, a photo project and then the research work on opening a gallery there was time for little else.

In regards to your questions, I did do all the construction work myself with a lot of help from friends. We started the build out on the space on Feb 7th and the opening was Mar 1st. It was a very intense 3 weeks as you can guess.

Regards,
Scott

Thanks Kathy and congrats on your studio. I don't miss being a stock broker at all, much less stress now.

Scott

Good luck with the gallery Scott, if I were near you I would definately call in for a look around...

Thanks Jan for your kind wishes.