The one question I dread most happens quite frequently when I am doing a show is 'What is your personal favorite image'?.
I don't like the question for several reasons. The foremost reason is that I don't want people buying my art because as the creator, I like it. I want people to buy my art because it is something that they envision on one of their walls being appreciated by others.
A few shows ago, I had a patron ask me which images I had won either regional, national, or international awards for. After I identified them, he bought every single image that was an award winner. He said they would make good Christmas gifts because they were award winners.
From a business standpoint, that made me happy because I made a fair amount of money off that sale. But at the same time, it made me a bit sad because the transaction just felt like someone was investing based on opinions of others without having even the slightest emotional connection to what he was buying.
The second reason that question bugs me is because over the course of this journey of thousands of ICM images, I have maybe ten or so that I really like from the technical, aesthetic, and emotional aspects of visual art, and if I had to choose just one, it would change from day to day, and sometimes from hour to hour. The funny thing about this though is that I have submitted all of these images into a variety of competitions and of the ones I really like, only one has ever won an award.
What I do really enjoy is when someone comes to one of my shows, looks through some of the inventory, and then asks if I have something that suggests xxxxxx. The one most memorable encounter I had with a patron was when she asked if I had something that looked vaguely like a chicken. Fortunately I did. It was an image that I had made with a plastic lens that created a lot of chromatic aberations and I only had one of them in the smaller 5X7 matted format. It was one of the least expensive things I had for sale, and personally, I was not particularly attached to it. When she asked how much it was selling for and I told her, the result was 'you've got to be kidding - it is too cheap'. A matted 5X7 for $15 is a pretty good markup to me. Then out came the wallet and $15 so quickly it was like I was the slow draw at a six-gun shootout.
All this got into her story of why she was buying the photograph. She explained that she has a sister who is really into chickens. So much so that she lets the chicken live in the house with her and allows it to sleep on her lap as she watches TV. My image was just crazy enough that it fit with her whole opinion that although her sister was quite off, the image would become a cherished gift just because it resembled an odd-looking chicken. We both had a great chuckle over her planned use of my chicken ICM.
As the day wore on, I thought about this encounter quite a bit, and found myself really happy. Someone had found a perfect fit for one of my creations in facilitating a deepening relationship with someone else. Best part....I played a small part in it! As I sit here writing this, just having finished 'Ambiguous Friends' (above) which I think may become one of my personal favorites, I can't help but reflect back on the juxtaposition between the chicken-lady and investor encounter. It adds a lot of clarity as to why I do my art. Making what I consider one of my favorite pieces is fun, but I'd trade it without hesitation for more chicken-lady sales.