Windsor Market - Interior design showcase

[Marvin Mattelson]

It could have to do with your choice of venue. If this is a designer's showcase your paintings might be viewed in that context. Decoration goes for a lot less than Art.

[Mike McCarty]

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.

[Valerie Warner]

Mike,
Geez, you make me laugh! And considering I knocked my Mac Monitor off the desk this morning while trying to fix a broken mouse, and dropped my protein shake in my lap not 20 mins later, that's saying something!

I know about the lion heart 'cause I have been a street vendor for 20 years. I have painted children's faces for $5 a pop. Not portraits, mind you, actually held their beautiful cheeks in my hands and put paint on them in the shape of unicorns, dragons, etc. I made tons of money, lots of friends, and miss it alot. This 50 year old body will not take the hours of county fairs anymore and I thank it for that.

Sometimes I'd make $1500 per day if I was in the right market. It needed to be where the Dad would gently "boot" (for you) the kids in the fanny and say, "Sure, go ahead and paint 'em!"

One time I drove 12 hrs to San Diego, attended an up scale fine art show, thought I'd wow them with my face painting. I spent 4 days, tons of money and took in $3.00 THREE BUCKS! These well off people put the money in college funds rather than let them have a little fun. Interesting! Good lesson learned for sure!

Anyway...soon to hit the show circuit with more "real work" at fine art shows, and I'm excited. This time I'm being very careful to have the right work at the right price and lots of options for the customers.