When it's still not enough
So, a few days ago, I triumphantly announced that I had turned it around with my new client, by doing extensive revisions to a piece he was not satisfied with. I wrote that a bit prematurely, however, as he had yet to view the art. When he did, he give a less-than-ringing endorsement to it, saying it was better, but still not quite.......something.
A year ago I would have gotten so exasperated with him, myself, life in general, that I would have been depressed for a few days. This time, I said to myself, "I've done all I can possibly do. I've doubled the time I had allotted to work on this piece, and did everythig I could think of to make it work. If he is still not pleased, then I just have to write it off to fate, subjective chemistry, anything but failure of some kind on my end". Even that is hard to swallow, but it's much healthier than the state this might have once left me in.
I could imagine how an athlete who has given it his all must feel after "leaving it all on the field" in a defeat. I had extended myself physcially, beginniing the work at 4 am to "make it right". This was, after all, a very promising new client whose work I was excited about, and I had a lot to prove, or so I thoght. But, one thing that mkaes the art buziness a bit different from others is the subjectivity involved in a given client's acceptance of the finished product. I can give it everything I've got, incouding some 30 years of experience, and still wind up with a disatisfied client. This doesn't happen frequently, but now and then it does. What is there to do at that point, but sigh and say, "I tried" knowing that one did, in fact, do everything one could do.
It's not nearly as much fun as a client who gushes, "I love it!". The ego does take a beating. I consoled myself with the knowledge that Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" was not well received by the good burghers of Amsterdam who commissioned it either.
Rembrandt and me: a pair for the ages.
A year ago I would have gotten so exasperated with him, myself, life in general, that I would have been depressed for a few days. This time, I said to myself, "I've done all I can possibly do. I've doubled the time I had allotted to work on this piece, and did everythig I could think of to make it work. If he is still not pleased, then I just have to write it off to fate, subjective chemistry, anything but failure of some kind on my end". Even that is hard to swallow, but it's much healthier than the state this might have once left me in.
I could imagine how an athlete who has given it his all must feel after "leaving it all on the field" in a defeat. I had extended myself physcially, beginniing the work at 4 am to "make it right". This was, after all, a very promising new client whose work I was excited about, and I had a lot to prove, or so I thoght. But, one thing that mkaes the art buziness a bit different from others is the subjectivity involved in a given client's acceptance of the finished product. I can give it everything I've got, incouding some 30 years of experience, and still wind up with a disatisfied client. This doesn't happen frequently, but now and then it does. What is there to do at that point, but sigh and say, "I tried" knowing that one did, in fact, do everything one could do.
It's not nearly as much fun as a client who gushes, "I love it!". The ego does take a beating. I consoled myself with the knowledge that Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" was not well received by the good burghers of Amsterdam who commissioned it either.
Rembrandt and me: a pair for the ages.
posted by Rich Sigberman at
9:59 AM
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