Lauritzen Gardens, Woodstock and Peter Buffett

Hello Million Friends,

Grab a beverage, sit back and read.

I decided to say YES to any artistic opportunity that presented itself.  All of a sudden, it seemed, I became very busy.

So let’s catch up, or ketchup.

In June I was accepted to be in the annual Art in Bloom Show at Lauritzen Gardens. The show ran August 8 & 9^th from 9-5 with more than 60 artists. I will refer to Lauritzen Gardens as LG for the rest of this blog post.

Woodstock and Feeling The Love

LG was kind enough to let all the artists keep the proceeds of their sales and it doesn’t cost anything for space to show.  There’s one one caveat, you must agree to demonstrate your process. No problem, my demonstration was called Accidental Art .  But don’t let the name fool you, it’s no accident.

For the LG show I bought a metal slat screen to hang my art for display. I decided to do some mixed media collage on square wood supports, some 4×4, some 8×8. I love mixed media. Oh, and I forgot to mention I had a commission for a Woodstock painting at the same time, it’s the 40 year anniversary. Show and Commission Work – YES!!

Two days at LG displaying paintings and my collage work were a hit. Many admired them and I managed to sell a few of them, including one to an artist Lorelei Kay Designs . YES!!

Jennifer Evans, a manager from LG walked by and said “Chris, Hi I didn’t even know you were in the show. I love those plaques! We’re going to have to talk about getting some in the gift shop here.” YES!! I’m feeling the love.  

Smacking People Around

Sunday afternoon at LG, a man walked up and looked at everything, his wife followed. He pointed to one of my favorites and said, “$150.00? That’s not enough, that’s got to be a mistake. Are you sure that isn’t $1,150.00″ (I wish it had been). He was asking for it, challenging me in fun, so I played along and smacked him around a bit, and he liked it. The secret there is KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.

I ran around the table digging for my price list, which of course was nowhere or now here to be found.

So I said, “Mr. Money Bags, they b*&^tch if you price them too low, they b&tch if you price them too high. Why don’t you just buy it Mr. Deep Pockets?”

He paused but liked my style of selling and smacking him around, because he did have money. He was walking and talking fast and walked behind the sales table and sat next to my assistant and asked, “Is there something wrong with her?” She  said, “YES!!”.  Thanks girlfriend, you’re a true friend. I couldn’t tell if he was going to buy this painting so I pulled out my last sales trick! Name dropping my prominent collectors……SOLD!!   YES!!

He must have been part of a gang (see hand sign).  

OOPS!!

I was showing the painting to his wife, holding it from the back wire and the wire slipped out of one eye and the painting fell. It even bounced a couple times on the way to the hardwood floor. It was okay, not one chip. He has a feline art collection and collects art,  he told us he has a huge collection of every kind of art.

He said, “I’m going to give you my email and I want you to let me know wherever you are or if there are any artists you think would be of interest to me.” Another dream customer, because usually nobody will even sign The Mailing List.

The show was winding down, but there were a few stragglers.  A woman wearing a big hat came up to me and whispered, “Are you represented by anyone?” Flabbergasted and speechless I couldn’t talk. She repeated her question again. I managed to respond with a complete sentence. She said, “Have you ever heard of the blah blah gallery? (that’s not the real name). I want to have your work in my gallery!  The gallery she owns is located in a premiere trendy spot, very nice and touristy. She gave me her name and told me to give her a call.  YES!!

As she was walking away she said, “Love the Pig Painting!”.

Peter Buffett Cover Art Contest

Then I saw that Peter Buffett was on Facebook and we friended each other.  A couple weeks later he invited me to join his Ning community. Since I made my commitment to say “YES” to everything, I joined his Ning community. Little did I know, he was having a Cover Art Contest for his new single to be released August 31, 2009, called Running Blind.  He’s writing a single a month and runs a cover art contest every month, so artists listen up.

To win the contest, the members of Mr. Buffett’s Ning community and anyone I invited, needed to leave positive comments about the artwork everyone submitted. I called everyone whether I knew them or not. Some people were very responsive, mostly strangers. Within a week, I entered the contest, invited everyone I could think of and I WON!!   YES!!

To see the winning cover, go to Peter Buffet’s Ning community and join.  You’ll see the image below on his home page at Ning.  Click on it.  I don’t know how long it will be up there so here’s the image you’ll be looking for.

(Click image for larger view)

This is as good as it gets in Omaha, Nebraska!!

YES – the magic word.

Pray for peace,
Chris

Tagged as: art, Contests, cover art, ning