An artwork commission gone awry

Remember this commission I hand-painted for a customer recently and was super excited about how it turned out?

Turns out she wasn’t so much!

You know this happens from time to time. Commissioned artworks can be tricky things.  As much as I try to communicate with my customers, asking questions and discussing options to get the best possibly idea of what they’re after in their artwork, it’s very much risky business, as it’s literally impossible to get inside someone else’s head to ‘see’ what they are imagining.

99% of the time the dance between us is one of mutual admiration and we end up with something we’re both really excited about, grateful that the other person brought us such joy in the moment and in the end product … but there’s always going to be times when it just doesn’t work out. And you know what? That’s okay too. I think for me, as someone who works from the heart, I’m not in it just to sell my work, I’m in it to CONNECT with people through shared life experience and feelings. If something doesn’t feel right to either of us, I’d prefer us to be honest.

It’s been a great learning curve for me too, this time it’s helped me to articulate that I love personalising things for people, but now that I’ve got less time to make art while I balance family life/motherhood, it’s more realistic for me to offer simple customisations on my existing artworks, rather than creating new ones from scratch.

So to this end, I’ve decided to offer free personalised text on my hand-painted ceramics, so that people can buy them as a gift for a friend and have their name written on it.

So for now, this little orphan is over in my shop until someone loves it so.