Have you seen the reels on social media where the couple is traveling and the wife—it’s always the wife—is saying, “Shouldn’t we be in the other lane? Do you see the bicyclist? Did you mean to park this far away?”
This is what the life of a commissioned artist is like.
And then there’s the client who says, “Please make us one of your windows for our dining room. We’re going to Vail. Send us a bill.” And, of course, everything in between.
All of these take patience. Total freedom is the hardest. I want them to be pleased, and I want to do something Avant-garde, but I look at how they have furnished their home, and I’m just not going to risk it. The “helicopter” patron isn’t really that difficult; the project just takes longer. I’m so used to the middle-of-the-road patron that I consider it the norm.
If there is ever a time to practice “it’s not what one says, but how you say it,” this is it. I have mellowed over the years because I stay busy and am not constantly on the brink of bankruptcy like in the early days. Also, I have become more sensitive to those in the “passenger seat.”
When Marcia and I travel, I usually drive and she navigates.This allows me to relax, daydream and mentally create. She gets to use her marvelous left brain so we get from point A to B without one wasted second. It works for us.
When I look over my website, our modern-day portfolios, I find it interesting how diverse my work is. I attribute much of this to my collaborative work with so many people.