300K Was Not Enough! 

I have watched several of your videos. I could tell immediately that you are an incredible sculptor. However, being a good artist and also being a good presenter of yourself and your art are not always found in the same person. After watching this video, I think you are an amazing addition to my Subscribed channels. I look forward to watching every video you release from this day forward. Thank you for your extremely candid look behind the scenes at this "side" of art.

You have great intuition, as an artist you have high sensibility - you feel people. You didnt lose noting, gallery lost you, still im sorry to hear some people involve politics in everything. Once, i was traveling from india back home to USA, i was dress confortable for trip: in Salwar Kurta and i had silk scarf - 1/2 of india wears same, regardless of religion, so i didnt even think much about, i looked very nice to my self. When i arrived to east coast of US everyone was treating me like dirt, i didnt know why sudden change? Even customs were disrespectful. When next seat passenger said to me "In this country we have some rules and culture' - ooh i understod why they gave me hatred - they thought because of salwar that im coming from islamic country, I wanted to strangle that stupid man, but he got away. I was upset they disrespected my kindness because of hatred speech they call 'news' but its not easy to be them, they have tv in every room, thats more toxic then rattle snake.

I do 2 large private/public showings of the garden pieces I make on our property in mid spring and mid fall. My wife and I cater the whole ordeal with food we grow, open our home to friends and clients, and do a little exhibition of the amount of work it takes to carve the letter "I". All, except for 1, gallery experiences have been negative... I don't like someone else negotiating a price on my work behind my back. Do all your exhibitions at your studio. You know the space, layout, and amount of people that can comfortably see your works. Plus... it a great reason to do a deep clean of your space and rearrange some of your space.

How to keep tools sharp. How to keep fingers and lungs safe. How to deal with dealers. In between, a little sculpting, if you can keep your spirituality green. Behind the scenes is very useful for us watching, so, thank you again. I'd have to conclude, either the dealer is suffering from some weird prejudice, or, he is financially incompetent or dodgy. Maybe you will receive more info from the friend who recommended you. It pays to be sure of life's lessons. "I didn't prepare any deep philosophical conclusion" - your rolling the geometric stone was enough.

You seem like the kind of person whose intuition is usually correct. Follow your gut. Thanks for the wonderful videos.

I love your sharing upon the subject of rock and came upon you looking for a guide to the correct technique with tools. Then it morphed into your philosophical take on life, for I’ve just watched you and Brad Evan’s. Humanity is shifting from a carbon-based DNA to a crystalline DNA and that connects us all to the rock in ways previously unseen or understood. This has the inevitable effect of irrelevancy as to where we are born, for one may as well say I come from Mother Earth. Thereby each persons contribution to this life holds merit in their grid of love to this world of crystalline connection, and all prejudice for any other reason shall fall away. Please keep sharing your beautiful guidance and pure love of that which forms our terra firma. I find your decent heart and the rock carving very uplifting throughout these interesting times. Thank you Athar.

Greetings Athar: I enjoy your videos and believe your approach transcends the physical expression of stone work to a deeper meaning. I can tell you since I'm a Francmason. In reference to your experience with the gallery, I can relate. Once I spoke with a person concerning work, she knew my resume, and my references. She was impressed an enthusiastic, that until she asked where was I from. I'm of latin origin, born in New York, and my name is Israel. When I told her this everything went south. She even had the audacity of saying she thought I was from a more exotic place. Imagine been from a more exotic place than from the rainforest in the Caribbean sea . Lol Keep inspiring, thank you. By the way, I reached out about the online course. Be well

Follow your intuition ... You got that far with it . 👍😊 Great work by the way . I follow your videos , i just bought my first Cuturi Hammer to sculpt my hard Brazilian soapstone . And you sir are an awesome teacher . Thumbs up . 👍👍

Athar, very interesting story. You probably dodged the proverbial bullet by getting out of that show. Art dealers inhabit a landscape of minefields and quicksand, in other words watch your step with these characters. There's a lot of snake oil out there. BTW, since you did such a bang up job on the safety vid, I wanted to point out to you that the US safety police -OSHA- has a revised regulation for occupational exposure to chrystaline silica. It is an absurdly low exposure limit in micrograms per cu. meter. Mostly we use either water or vacuum to control the dust on construction projects. Since you mentioned the dust problem, it's probably something you can engineer a work around for in your studio. Such as rig up a giant extractor fan or filter, or water spray. Silicosis is a chronic accumulative disease and I want to keep you around for a long time, so yes, respirator is good but eliminate or control the dust is better.giovanimeola dot com

Always go with your instincts. Wonderful work👌.

The cocaine thing is what immediately went through my head, then immediately after I thought it, you said it. I'm sorry about the whole affair though.

You Sound like a modest, honest guy, the business end of art is very gray as you probably know.

I say you need to give your "friend" a visit it's time to talk... Great content..I'll be waiting for the conclusion

That a contract was offered so quickly, before you'd had time to talk about either your work or the possibility of an exhibition, seems suspect to me.

It is not only about what you can but mostly about who you know ;) Funny story...about the “ hypopotachrimus”

For an artist such as yourself, you have a sense of stone and tools, your experience there wasn’t fooling you. You have a portfolio unlike what this hustler is capable of handling. Maybe he believed he could handle the outlays of financial juncture, that insurance would have been a huge issue. I’d assume that is a fraction (shake) within that showmanship. Very risky stuff… Perhaps this is what reputation means for trusting people: that sense and how to avoid jeopardy? Like later discovering a fracture in the stone …

Some people place some sort of irrelevant value on the personal story of others. I do mostly architectural stone carving replacements and repairs in the US. Some architects and "design professionals" place some sort of importance on the final product being hand crafted by a European born person with an accent and a cool story over a locally born american. Results are the same and my price is better but some people prefer to purchase a story so they can brag about it. Even if its fake one.

Considering the timing of the cancellation and the awkwardness that preceded it, I would venture to guess that either the gallery owner does not like Iranians or that he thinks some of his "important" collectors might object. Still, I think this kind of behavior for whatever reason is not unheard of in the world of art sales.

mabey he knew one of the buyers would have a problem with our origin for personal reasons and was too emberased to take the whole "i can sell everything" back, or he could have some personal reasons of his own (some things are hard to forget even if you logicaly know its wrong or doesnt make sense) however i think that what your implying might´v been correct

Where was the gallerist from?

You should build a big closed forum made for example with phpBB or other free platform with all the countries where all the sculptors around the world share this kind of problems regarding your clients and start building profiles and reputation of each client of each country. I think is not bad idea because most likely you weren't the only one that had problems with that person. - Ramón

This stone you roll have the energy ! Have that magnetic connection ones you roll it ! Conclusion is your work cost as much as you rate and price it ! One day you might have exhibition in Iraq much more effective and profitable! East and Arab countries left a huge mark in culture, architectural life in Spain and some other regions in Europe ! Infront of art nationality is irrelative.

Hello sir I wanna do work with you

So his break even is 250k a month? Must be paying a kardashian for a shout out

Maybe the dealer thought he could take advantage of you but upon hearing you were from Iraq... thought you might have dangerous friends or family that could cause him regret.