Pumpkins On The Lawn
Now that November is here, I feel it is safe to tell this story on myself. To this day I still have a funny reaction when I see a pumpkin. It all started with good intentions and not enough preparation. Here’s what happened:
When I was about 15 years old, my dad thought it would be a great idea if I used my burgeoning artistic skills to begin an entrepreneurial enterprise. It was around Halloween time and he thought painting faces on pumpkins would be a sure thing. Genius right? As a matter of fact, there was a local farmer who painted pumpkins every year and he sold tons of them. My dad thought “Butch can do that and we’ll become millionaires!” At first, it sounded like a great idea, but then I saw the 200 pumpkins my dad had ordered, being delivered to our house. Can you imagine a giant pile of pumpkins being dumped on your front lawn? My dad was supportive, but I was expected to paint as many of the pumpkins as I could.
Like any start-up, it was exciting, but I was getting paid nothing up front. Here’s where our preparation issues came into play. The pumpkins were ordered only two weeks before Halloween. This project should have started a minimum of six months earlier. Here is the second preparation problem: the pumpkins had to be painted with an airbrush/compressor and I had never used one before. I spent long hours in our freezing cold garage learning how to work the air compressor to be able to airbrush faces on literally hundreds of pumpkins. At one point I tried to enlist the help of some of my artist friends, but they very wisely turned me down. I ended up painting about 30 of the 200 pumpkins and only sold six of them—all to my aunt.
Needless to say, it was a learning experience and now when I see a pumpkin, I immediately imagine a painted face on it. There are plenty of lessons in this story regarding preparation, training, trial and error, asking someone with related experience and more. But today, the thing that stands out the most is being willing to try something outside your comfort zone and learning something new.
Personally, I have benefited from many lessons along the way, and I have had lots of experienced people come alongside me in my journey. You can connect with people who will encourage you in your dreams through my monthly membership community. For just $37/mo you can be part of a vibrant group of individuals who are bursting with opportunities to collaborate and create alongside fellow artists.
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Art gives you power…use it wisely.