Toughen Thy Skin

When I started this blog about two years ago, the idea was to figure out how to live a creative life, rather than returning to my work in escrow.  I wanted it to be an honest look at what it takes to build a creative business, if it's possible, the growth and learning that goes on during the process, I hoped that other artists would gain some insight and hopefully offer some as well.  Mostly I hoped that I would figure out a way to create a life from following my passion.  So here is an honest look at a setback that feels like it's knocking me over, but in reality will be a huge learning experience.  Except at this point, all I can feel is my Irish temper kicking in.  I was doing a festival last summer at a local casino.  I approached the hotel manager and asked if I could do a proposal for his lobby, since the walls were bare.  My idea was to gift it to them in exchange for the exposure it would offer.  To me, I very generous offer.  At first they were ecstatic and surprised at the idea.  Then, once I had submitted the proposal, the reply was that they had surprisingly similar proposals from a lot of artists.  Hmm...perhaps mention that at the beginning rather than looking surprised at the idea.  So, question to myself, would it be a good idea to approach another commercial establishment with this idea or better to get exposure in more traditional ways?  My idea has been to approach this by thinking outside of the box.  Not working this time.  And yes....they did go with another artist.  :(

Then they approached me about doing a piece of art for their 24 hour restaurant.  Although that felt like a slap in the face and I was pretty leary about putting myself out there for them again, I decided to give it a shot.  First meeting I was told they did not want anything too abstract, although they liked the feathers in my initial lobby proposal they were more interested in the circle of life concept.  I also clarified whether they were requesting a similar proposal, meaning the art be gifted to them, they were not.  So, this is what I created.  FYI, these proposals are all done in photoshop and would look more dimensional painted. 

They looked at it and said, "umm, we probably should have told you but we do not want green.  Could you do something with a sun for the circle of life and a representation of our river running through the work.  Please keep the idea of 7 slats to represent our casino, but break the painting into three pieces."  So I sent them this.

Then they said, "we don't want blue" (would have been nice to mention that when they asked for a river), we don't want a literal river, more like a brushstroke, we want browns and reds. We want it more abstracted"  So I sent them this.  This one, btw, is my favorite.  May have to paint it anyway, the feather is supposed to be the abstracted river they asked for.  I think if this were actually painted (rather than photoshopped) it would be amazing.  I've done other things in a variety of reds and it's gorgeous.  The gold "circle of life" would be done with gold leaf so it had a burnished glow.

And this.

They sent me a painting of a brown and beige print they were putting on a different wall and said they wanted those colors and a black feather like the one in my lobby proposal.  They also sent me a sketch of it laid out as above.  I said let me clarify, "you want browns and beiges with a black feather, correct".  They said, "well there are more colors in there than brown and beige".  I photoshopped the exact piece of art they sent me and the exact feather I used in my lobby proposal.  In effect, I gave them EXACTLY what they asked for.  They came back and said, "we've decided we want to use metal art on the wall".

This is their "beautiful" restaurant.  With my art photoshopped.   They said, "perhaps we will work together in the future".  I "politely" (at least compared to what I was thinking) replied that I would decline to work with them in the future.  Not sure what the moral of my story is.  Another disappointment on the way to a creative life?  Need to handle disappointments better?  Toughen thy skin?  Maybe it is do not do commissioned pieces or at most submit one proposal, if they are not happy with it, end of story.