I have a few pieces of this series up on the wall. Apparently they're people pleasers, which pleases me too. I feel terrible, I keep forgetting the names of the staff who have been talking me up for ages now. I want to give them specific credit, because honestly, they deserve solid recognition just for working an on-your-feet front-line job all day.
Anyway, I brought my Weird Al(liums) Yankovic piece to replace this one on the wall. The only one people have trouble recognizing is the Jason Mantzoukas (Plantzoukas) piece. I explained, I know him mostly from the Podcast world, like 'How Did This Get Made' and his frequent visits to Comedy Bang Bang, but if you're into TV and Film rather than audio, you might recognize him from, say, The Good Place, as Janet's dumb-as-nails boyfriend Derek.
I didn't really get time to sit down and ask the buyer of this one, Seth Roganja. I had assumed we were going to have lunch or a coffee, but they were in a hurry, so they handed me an envelope full of cash and zipped away. Probably back to work. It was a Wednesday, after all. So I stayed for lunch. I had a nice grilled cheese. It was good to sit my walk off for a bit anyway.
I walk everywhere right now. Home to my gallery is about an hour. Home to the diner is a solid 90 minute walk. Fortunately, it's almost a direct overshoot of the gallery, so I got back home in increments instead of a second 90 minute walk.
Fun fact about this piece - aside from the Easter Egg Seth Rogen film references, like the Frank Mask from Donnie Darko (a Young Seth Rogen plays Donnie's Classmate, buddy of the guy who gets shot wearing the Frank mask) the bouquet I used for reference was SO delicate, most of the flowers fell apart while I was trying to place them. The weed leaves were from a friend who grew a bunch of plants in his yard. He and his partner got her son to sex the plants, and they let me take all the males to make this.
I didn't think to tell the buyer. Some people get mighty upset if they know a male weed plant is around. ;)
The vase also, that's a special reference. Seth got into pottery over the pandemic, and this is supposed to be one of his pieces. I don't know for absolute certain that I succeeded representing it, but I think if you saw it side by side with the photo I used, you'd see it.
Side note, I think he mostly sells his vases for charity. It's noble. I'm of a couple minds on celebrity art, you know? On one hand, it's a skill they have to develop like any other, and there shouldn't be any public outrage about them actually profiting themselves from their own work. If they can't, who can? On the other hand, celebrities start their extracurricular art careers with huge pre-developed platforms, which is a massive advantage over small beans artists like myself. That's kind of why I've gone into direct targeting with my pop culture art. When I get a boost from a big platform, it makes a huge difference for me. It feels really cool, but more importantly, it makes many many thousands of people aware that I exist. The small percentage of those that like what I do are such a huge signal boost. And then, when it doesn't happen, the fans of the celebrities I target still enjoy my work when they see it. More often than not, that's good enough for me. Sometimes it turns into sales!
One last aside before I sign off, on my way out of the diner yesterday, as I was settling up my coffee and grilled cheese, I tipped 60% or so.
"Well that's plenty" she said.
"Well, you deserve it." I said. "Honestly, when you consider how much you've done for ME, it's almost nothing. I should be ashamed of so small a tip."
She smiled.
Then, a handsome young server mentioned he really liked the Cheers piece I have in the back corner, with the TV cast of What We Do in the Shadows, Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, and a gimp. He said he fancied himself a bit of a Ted Danson bartender character.
I made the mistake of telling him that that piece was inspired by an audition my partner booked for that show, that it was the orgy episode, and my partner was the guy getting railed by the virgin, ultimately ruining the party. The audition featured Lazslo wheeling in every era of video player to show off his porn collection he'd filmed of himself over the centuries, to Nadja's incredible boredom. It ends with a VHS tape which has been taped over with a Cheers episode, cut to Constantine (My partner the Gimp) in the corner, furiously beating off, chanting "Will they, won't they?". That scene didn't make it into the episode, so without the context, nobody knows what the painting means.
The server definitely wishes he didn't know what that painting was all about. He looked absolutely horrified. That's when I wished them a great day and left. I'm sure he's fine.
Anyway, that's all for today. Be well, the lot of you.