Five years ago I met a man who would change my life forever, the wonderful artist Peter Max who has been instrumental in my success in the art world. In early 2013 my daughter was born and as any new dad will tell you, it really puts everything into perspective. Back then I was working part time and hustling hard to fulfill my dream of being an artist. I had no dreams of making millions, I just wanted to grow bigger than a few likes on my Facebook profile for my paintings, and actually sell some! I decided that I would have one last roll of the dice before giving up my dream, and set up an exhibition in a friend’s studio. I invited some friends to display their art and I messaged just about everyone in the art world that I could think of to come, with perhaps the odd exaggerated truth in the press release, and this would change my life forever.
Nobody But Peter
Contrary to what Peter says now, he was the only person who I got in touch with that actually arrived to this event, beyond that it was just some friends and some neighbors who attended. Peter walked in around 9 with one of his agents, just as I was giving up hope of anyone important coming to the event. As soon as I saw him and his agent I ran for it and stole a couple of minutes of his time, mainly as I was worried he’d be focusing on a piece that wasn’t mine.
Confession
I told Peter the truth right away and offered him this stream of consciousness about what I was doing, why I had the event set up and that some of the information on the flier may not have been strictly true. I was initially worried about his reaction but when he began to laugh, I knew that he would be on my side. I told him which work was mine, and then left him in peace to wander around, expecting to see him later. An hour went by and he’d gone, he hadn’t said another word and I was pretty devastated to be honest. That night I went home, kissed my daughter and began looking for full time jobs.
Redemption
The next day I woke up to a ridiculous amount of messages from my friends, who were sharing a Tweet with me from Peter max himself. As it turns out he loved my work, took photos of it and put them on his Twitter account with my name next to it. The comments below were full of people asking who I was and how they could get their hands on my paintings, i was blown away. That day alone I sold 10 paintings and since then, everything in my life has changed. In 5 years I am now fully self sufficient as an artist, my daughter and wife want for nothing and I am doing what I love, and you know the strangest thing… I haven’t seen Peter ever since! A true hero of a man.
Leave a Reply