IT MUST BE SO HARD AT THE TOP

There is a certain self-satisfied casualness, is there not, in this art-world I aspire to be involved in, amongst certain curators, editors and other art-mongers when dealing with 'ordinary' folk? - it must be so hard at the top, that normal civilities go quite by the board.
I am referring, for example, to the various editors on both the Guardian and Independent whom I contacted to market my review of the Royal Society of Marine Artists show (which I eventually published in this blog - see below).  Despite repeated contacts to both of these journals, with evidence of my writing ability (I used to be a journalist) I received absolutely no reply from either of them.  Too many London openings and press reviews to bother emailing even a curt reply like 'Dear Thom, not this time but thanks anyway!"

Well, I did get a reply from Sara-Jayne Parsons of the Bluecoat in Liverpool, whom I had contacted with a proposal for a personal show in one of their smaller galleries.  Back it came, on jauntily headed Bluecoat paper with "create, shop, join in, view, be ... " written at the top ...  "Our exhibition schedule is in place for the next two years" wrote S-J (a nice way of saying 'No, you can't 'join in'', as they put it).  The trouble was, my approach to the gallery had been made last September - I got the reply the following February - five months is a big chunk out of two years, don't you think?