Paranoia and reviews
I am better prepared. I have plastic sheets ready to throw over my work should it start raining and my wife is ready to come and collect me should black clouds appear on the horizon.
The weather is cloudy but warm and I set out my stall and begin to paint. What if nobody likes my work? What if the shopkeepers come out and chase me down the street because I am ‘taking their trade?’ What if mad drunken yobs ransack my stall and run off with my works? – looting doesn’t really feature as a passtime in this neck of the woods but you never know.
My fears are unfounded and i only get nice comments from passing shoppers and people who come to eat their pasties and pies in the dome.
I have pleasant conversations with people who either paint or know someone who paints. A couple of people take my business card -I am hoping they are millionaire art collectors or gallery owners but suspect they are tax collectors or other artists who are going to write crazy comments on my website. http://www.the-art-of-richard-marshall.co.uk should you want to check:)
Why the paranoia? Am I not confident of my own abilities? Call me feeble but I do need the positive strokes from others and the acceptance of my peers. I am still craving that written rave review. I have exhibited my works twice in local gallerires but I haven’t had a write up. I have had complimentary remarks written in the visitors book provided at my exhibitions but nothing in the press yet.
So smiles and ‘well done dear’ from old ladies will have to suffice for now but at least I haven’t been attacked…yet.
The weather holds and I go home happy that I can call myself an artist street trader.
