I was only fourteen years old when I started my professional art career. I ‘borrowed’ my mom’s old Christmas card collection which inspired a hand-drawn book of Christmas window splashes. As December rolled around I hitchhiked into town (I was too young to drive) and sold the designs to the local merchants. I sold the first window to a family friend for fifteen dollars and as my confidence grew so did the prices I dared to ask. Over the next two weeks, after school and on the weekends I would lay out the designs onto the store windows and then paint them backwards on the inside. That first year I made a whopping six hundred dollars - a fortune back in the late 1960’s. I remember one very large window project which I quoted at fifty dollars. The owner watched intently as I painted the design and was surprised when I completed the project in only a couple of hours. As I approached him with the invoice in hand he was suddenly reluctant to pay. He asked me who I worked for. On hearing the news that this skinny little kid in front of him was the owner of the company he generously offered me twenty-five bucks. He was adamant that this was still a lot of money for someone my age. I calmly asked him for a rag. I dipped it into my brush-washing bucket and walked up to the window. I told him that for half of our agreed estimate, I would wipe half paint off the window. We stared each other down for what seemed like a very long time before he agreed to pay the full amount. I was often questioned about my age and my experience as I began my self-employed journey but each time I would somehow convince my prospective client to trust me. As my portfolio and client list grew through the years things gradually got easier.
A few years ago I was visiting a client in California. We were reviewing a complex design and discussing a project that would take five years or more to complete. Our client was a three-generation family business. One of the grandsons in the meeting looked at me intently and then asked me how old I was. I could see him doing the math in his head as he calculated how old I would be as the project was completed. It took me by surprise for I had never run into this concern previously. It made me smile. I assured him that our company was also multi-generational and that he was in good hands - no matter what. It’s funny how little changes through the years. Age is still just a number.
