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Valerie,
Thanks for the nice sentiment, a common theme once uttered by all my ex-wives. But, appreciated nontheless.
Lisa,
It's a difficult thing to measure. I believe that the act of painting in public was a definite plus. A lot of people seemed to be intimidated by what I was doing, but, I don't think that type would be a customer anyway. I continue to believe that, with some exceptions, the principal can sell the goods better than anyone else. Also, I have been involved in sales long enough to know that my presence was not a deterrent.
As far as location, this was the high income area. I continue to believe that there were enough people genuinely interested in the product, but they could not overcome the sticker shock. Had I got one simple commission per month I would have considered it a good start and gladly stayed on.
The interesting variables would be if I had shown a much higher quality of work (very much targeting children) or, if the same set up were taken to Charleston, NYC, or Atlanta. Being generous to myself, I would say that the public is really not that hard to impress in terms of quality. Committing real money to a portrait, instead of a used F150 pickup truck, is a cultural issue that will take more than six months to overcome.
Marvin,
I now see your comment having already written the above. Yours is an interesting observation, and, it may have been a large part of it. I think if I had not been there to elaborate and educate, my paintings would have been completely misunderstood and dismissed. I was always trying to overcome this context problem.
I really thought that if I could get in the face of enough people I could sell the goods, little by little. Up to that point I had been working at my home studio which, save for a few knuckleheads and degenerates, had no traffic at all.
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Mike McCarty
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