Friday, October 2, 2009

Just as I had done when building the electric bike, I found an old man on line who was a photographer. I befriended him and he helped me learn more about composition. I could never have learned as much on my own. He gave me lots of advice and did lots of corrections on my early work.

While he helped me learn about composition, a young art teacher in the New York City public school system answered question for me about painting. Even though I was cranking out images, I knew they were crap. I needed the practice and the feedback so I went along with Lucy on framing and showing them.

After six months I began replacing my early pictures with newer and far better ones. Because I felt as though I had a better product I allowed Lucy to convince me to ride with her into Jacksonville. I agreed to try to exhibit some of my pictures in the town's pseudo intellectual retail outlets. Those were mostly high end restaurants and coffee shops. I was forced to agree to very large commissions just to get in the door of some places.

After the agreed two months I called just to be informed that nothing had been sold. Lucy drove me back to retrieve my art work. Well Lucy swore it was art not trash, but I had my doubts. The exhibits were, in her opinion, just for show. She swore that she never expected any of them to sell. Plus all my shots were very area specific. Most likely the people of Jacksonville could see similar sites just by taking a five minute drive. Lucy stated emphatically that I needed to show them in some other area.

Which explains why I was in Raleigh North Carolina on Halloween night. I was trying to convince the decorator for a chain of restaurants to sell my work. The chain operated restaurants in most of the big time tourist areas. Not kids getting drunk kinds of places, it aimed at families on vacation. I had no idea they would be interested in my work, but I tried to stay optimistic. In doing so I felt that it might work out for me.

To get to Raleigh I rode the Tomos to Jacksonville where I caught an Amtrak train to Raleigh North Carolina. I spent two days in Raleigh. The decorator agreed to use a half dozen of the images I showed her. She also suggested that if I shot some mountain scenes she would hang them in restaurants in their six ski resorts.

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