An interesting thing happened at my most recent event at a Lamar Consolidated ISD Christmas party. I was there with my colleague, Jody, and early on, I noticed many of the customers in line preferred to wait to be drawn by him instead of me. This was a real head scratcher, and it isn't actually the first time it's happened.
As the evening wore on, the tide turned and some of the customers actually chose me over Jody, so it all evened out but still, the question remained as to why more people were attracted to his artwork as opposed to mine. There were times when I had to actually go halfway down the long line of customers before I found someone willing to take my hot seat. After pondering the issue for two days I realized much of it was associated with the perception in the customers mind of what to expect and how they envisioned themselves. Jody's drawings were well drawn, to be sure and the customers, mostly women, saw them (and themselves) as flattering and cute if not drawn in a good likeness. It's what the masses prefer, much linked why the majority of the population chooses McDonalds meals over home cooked variety. My drawings, on the other hand, may not have been as flattering and traditionally "cute" but the likeness was there, as some of the customers said as the evening continued. It comes down to my preferences. Do I want comments like "that's cute" or would I prefer "that looks just like you, Betty". The answer to me is clear. It's my intention to draw in my own style, differentiated from the others and even though the other artists are very talented indeed, I prefer my own style and frankly, so does the clientele I seek. However, it is important to attract people, especially in an environment as a live gig. So how can I do so without sacrificing my own creative style?
0 Comments
This past weekend was the typical pre-Christmas busy time with work on Friday, Saturday and a marathon session on Sunday. A promising time.
I was drawing at a Christmas party over the past weekend and at the end of the evening, as I was preparing to leave, I noticed a small table and sitting on it was a drawing of a gentleman I drew much earlier that night. In fact, it might have been the first drawing of the night. I knew something was amiss when I showed him the drawing upon completion and his first remark was "Is that me?" Afterwards he repeated often to others, "this doesn't look like me".
I was a tad surprised because I considered it to be one of the best drawings I did all night. It actually took me 50 years to draw it and his reaction was "it doesn't look like me". It doesn't bother me or offend me in the least because as an artist who is a performer as I am, I learn very quickly that pleasing everyone is an impossibility. It goes to show that we all have a self perception that is different from how others see us. It's not unlike when we hear ourselves on a recording and we ask "do I sound like that?" I have been invited to be a guest on the Inside Houston Real Estate podcast next Friday and even though the date is still pending, I'm excited to be invited. The first thing I told the inviter was "My profession has nothing to do with real estate." He said it doesn't matter.
However, he mentioned how he has heard me say on a number of occasions "learning to draw helps you do everything better". Therefore, the subject of Friday's conversation may be how learning to draw can help someone be a better real estate professional, maybe. If that is the line of questioning, then I have just the answer. Learning to draw, at least from the point of view of my philosophy, is that to be a successful artist, one must learn the fundamentals. No one starts out already knowing how to draw. One must start from the beginning. Doing so takes planning, focus, attention to detail, problem solving and more. Those are the skills it takes to master any undertaking so why should a real-estate professional or anyone else learn to draw? Why not just use those skills on one's current endeavor? Because sometimes removing ourself from familiar surroundings and embarking on a task unrelated to what we normally do can help in the creative process and see our job in a new light. It doesn't have to be drawing. Some people run, hunt, write, work on cars, paint or any number of other things but drawing is particularly helpful because it isn't necessarily an easy thing to do, and one can utilize mindfulness to a much larger degree. I hope it goes well on Friday. |