Recognition
So I’m back, (as in just arrived home 20 minutes ago) from Two Rivers Art Expo in Des Moines. (I’ll tell you all about it next post.) But seeing as I’m hopped up on about 4 liters of Diet Coke (caffeine, my drug of choice) I thought I’d pop in for a quick post.
Hey . . . aren’t you?
I was recognised this weekend at the art expo. And while that’s not so odd (I mean I get recognised all the time as that horse painter Mona, or increasingly often from my Apples ‘n Oats column or even as Wild Faces Gallery.) But this weekend I got recognised for a different reason.
A woman was looking at my booth and then turns to me and says “Are you the artist?” I nod and say “Yes” Then she says, “Hey . . . aren’t you Fur In The Paint?” I went “Ahhhhh . . .” (because the wheels were turning, but I couldn’t quite get my mouth to engage.) After about 3 seconds of hesitation I say “Yes, yes I am.”
This was then followed by a few awkward moments (by me) because I was a little weirded out. My mind kinda flew through my blog entries searching for anything that I should feel embarrassed about. I mean this woman knows all about me. Personal and intimate stuff. While I know nothing about her. She had me at a distinct disadvantage.
You know, like when you were a teenager and your date comes to the house to get you. You make him wait a few minutes so you can make your grand entrance. And when you finally come down the stairs, you find out he has spent the last 15 minutes or so, looking through the family photo album at all your baby pictures. I was kinda like that.
None-the-less as she walked away I thought to myself, “Coooool!“
Ooh! I wonder who that was! Has she commented before? Did she leave a name?
Hmm… I’m now thinking there are a couple of embarrassing paintings I should take down from my blog!
This is so funny, it was me! I’m walking along and I recognized your tiger picture first. You have a way of doing fur that in my opinion is really good and unique. So I’m thinking, hey I’ve seen this before (because I do read good artwork blogs, especially colored pencil ones). Then I start looking for your name, all I could remember was “Fur In The Paint”, the reason I remembered it was because of your blog about being overly criticized about your white horse, and sure enough, there was the white horse! Someone stole her work! So I was just as confused as you were. Until it dawned on me you would be using your name:) So after our little awkward moments, I walked away thinking, gosh I really should have introduced myself. Nawwww, I’ll drive her crazy and see if she mentions it in “Fur In the Paint”, I had to come back and check
HA! Welcome Joyce, so good to meet you.
Yup, small world. So glad you commented. I kinda wondered whether you’d pop in to take a peek. SO apparently your an artist? I guess we missed out on all sorts of conversation because of the awkward moment. Next time I’ll be better prepared.
Undaunted, I think her post answered most of your questions.
Makes me think slightly more about what I’ll write. There is a comfort in the anonimity (sp?) of writing to strangers, though I know many of my blog readers. So I don’t know why I would think that. I guess it is just one more way that I disassociate myself from reality.
I was just thinking about you and wondered how you did at 2 rivers and decided to go to your blog and find out if you had reported yet. So then I read it and I am thinking why did it end like that ??? Now I know??? I can’t believe you let her get outa there without finding out who she was and etc. Now I think you need to get together and have that conversation
It is really cool for both you and Joyce that there was that moment of recognition due to blogging and the internet. I consider blogging as really putting yourself out there — for the whole world. Also, seems not any of it is erasable — so very hard to retract anything — makes all a bit intimidating to me.
I sent you an e-mail last Wed. saying the tigers are posted — but I think maybe your filters ate it. This may not work but it is at:
http://www.pet-portraitartist.com/forum/comp.php
I am working on my commission of two children. Practised first doing a picture of my dad as a young man. I think it is going pretty good — but the smallest thing can take away the likeness — trying to not get too uptight.
Hope you are resting from being at the show. Hope you had good sales. Looking forward to you next post, Angela
Hey Angela,
Good Luck with the people thing. Humans are so hard. Thats why when anyone asks me I just quote Ace Ventura Pet Detective “I don’t do people.”
Seriously, I think those of you who can do a good likeness are heaps above the rest of us. People have subtle characteristics that are lost on me.
I’ll check out the tigers and probably do a small post directing folks to it. How did it go? Have they listed the winners? I guess I should just get over there and look for myself huh?
As to the blogging, you can always go back and edit or delete something, though it is frowned upon hugely as blogging etiquette. I figure it is alot like life, there are no do-overs. Just be careful and curteous and it should all work out in the end.
Really? Oops. I won’t be very poular then! I’m always editing my posts!
I rarely do though I did edit one tonight. I think typos and such are allowed but the changing of content is frowned upon. Don’t ask. don’t tell is my motto.