Anyone have any good stories to help me feel better? I had a consult at a clients home today and I really screwed up, actually screwed it up with a screwdriver.
I was meeting with a client for a custom piece. The painting I brought to use for scale was exactly what they wanted. Excellent, this was going to be one of those wonderful easy appointments where everything goes better than one could hope. NOPE!
Since I had just finished this piece yesterday and I didn't think it was going to be exactly what they wanted I didn't have a wire on the back of it yet. I must have been using "The Secret" when I packed up my car this morning because I packed up supplies so I could wire the painting just in case they loved this actual piece. "The Secret" worked, but.... When I was screwing the brackets in I don't know what happened, has never happened to me before, the screwdriver slipped and went right through the canvas. AGHHHH I could have screamed and I am sure I said a very bad swear word instead, I can't remember. Luckily the young couple is the sweetest ever and now I have to work on a custom piece, but on the drive home I just wanted to throw up. I think I can save the piece by restretching it 6" shorter, so whatever with the painting, but I am so embarrassed, and a bit horrified. I should be in the studio painting but I have decided that today really isn't my day and I am going to take the rest of the day off.
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It wasn't in front of a client, but it was at a show and I was totally embarrassed. This was at Broad Ripple Art Fair back in the 90's. I was out in the baseball field with most of the artists. The booth next to me was the local PBS station staffed with about 5 or 6 young chatty women. The entire weekend they talked, talked, and talked some more. Inane crap that only the young and clueless can do. These were the intellectual crowd that has that irritating way of talking with their back teeth clenched that you hear in high end galleries. Regardless, I was polite and didn't ask them to keep it down. Anyway, tear down time arrives. They were slow at moving and still continuing to chatter and natter. I have one large box of framed work to pick up and move behind the booth. It was heavy. I had to put out some effort to pick it up and put some oomph into it. Yep, no doubt you can figure where this is going. Yes, Martha, it was loud and frightened the very birds from the trees. My face turned as red as a Danger, Will Robinson alarm =8-O There was a deafening silence next door with nothing but the distant sound of cicadas chirping and buzzing away. I hastily beat my retreat and hid in the booth. Five minutes or so later they still were silent next door. My wife leaned over and said if that was what it took to shut them up, I should have done that at the start of the fair.
LOL, that made me feel better Robert. I figured there had to be one of those stories out there. Good for you to be brave enough to share it :) I think Connie is right, some thing is in retro something because I just received an emial, this late at night, from one of my designers telling me she messed up and needs a piece finished for a client by tomorrow. I have less then 12 hours to start, finish and let the paint dry. Not much I can do to help her. I hope tomorrow is a better day.
Years ago at the Clinton IA show, it was in their park. The Park had a underground sprinkler system, the lines were marked with paint so artist did not damage the plastic lines. Since we had metal pieces that go in the ground we were very careful NOT to be close to the paint lines. OF COURSE the lines were wrong and we hit oil, just like Jed Clampet. Only we had water spraying 4ft in the air, and 15 miles of lines filled with water until it emptied. We were freaked out, and thought that we were kicked out, but they were good about it, (they marked the lines wrong) and we had a lake in the back ofour booth.
It ended up a pretty good show, go figure!
Everything happens for a reason right?! At least this is what I am telling myself:)
I can add another one, which I can laugh at now. About 15 years ago when I was doing faux painting I had a job that required 4 levels of scaffolding. I set it up with my assistant. It was a big job and when we were finished and ready to take the scaffolding down my assistant wouldn't get off her cell phone. I took the whole thing down on my own with no problem until the last level. I was stupid tired and I took the middle support bars off at the same time. Sure enough the two main support ladders fell over. One missed the $15K amoire and the other one went through the freshly painted faux wall. Anyone who has done faux knows it is very difficult to patch up a section with out doing the entire wall. The client was so great she told us she had always wanted her TV to be inset into the wall. First I went into my van and cried for a few minutes but then we made the hole bigger and framed out the TV:)
I know what you mean as it just not being your day today. Is Mars in Venus right now? I think I'll go the City Pool and take a soak.
Not an embarrassing moment but learned the hard way when a client says, "I'll take that," then just shut up and wrap it up. This person wanted 3 framed pieces and I was so excited that I just kept talking about them and other pieces also that finally she said, "I changed my mind." Hard lesson.
It's probably Mercury in retrograde. That always causes problems. I think it's gone into retrograde just about every weekend I've had a show this summer.
I was buying something at a festival and the artist was wrapping it up for me. He picked up the bag and the piece fell out, crashed into pieces on the ground and of course there was nothing even similar in the booth to save some semblance of a sale.
We have laughed about it when I have seen him but he hasn't had the same colors again so I never did buy a piece from him.
Look at it this way--if you can salvage the picture you will be able to sell that one and you have a commission to work on also--two sales.