Last year, it was our house insurance provider's weird mandate to make what seemed to be unnecessary external "upgrades" to our home/property ~OR~ risk having our policy dropped. "Steam-clean the exterior" but NOT "trim dead tree limbs;" "level out the step" but not "take down the dangling defunct TV antenna." $5,000 worth of totally unforeseen, mandatory "home improvements" wiped us out.
This year, the Fates seemed to totally smile on us. The energies around our Summer 2012 art show - Serendipity - generated four plum assignments for John. Two were modest (we celebrate each & every one, regardless of size!), two major. Praise be!
Naturally, John tackled the most $$$ first, as the tax man is yet again breathing down our necks. It was a private airplane, something he'd wanted for his portfolio for a long time. This one has charm & beauty, not white or silver, but a lovely color.
John enjoyed every moment doing the comprehensive sketch for client approval - we went with one of the clients to the hanger to take photos, he researched online, debated with himself the best setting (a grassy airstrip, similar to Van Sant).
After years of my pleading NOT to just toss it out, now John offers clients the opportunity to buy the comp art as well as the final piece. They almost always snap it up, It looks that good. It sure did, in this case. The clients were pleased as all get out with how he'd shown off their darling.
Except...
They balked at the price. In hindsight, John should have reminded them it was less than the $3000 or more he'd charge most clients. Because he wanted it for his portfolio - and the clients were friends from my home town - he'd dropped his price. Now, even that wasn't low enough. The couple switched from praising the art to hemming & hawing between themselves - "Well, you know, we have kids in college right now..."
And they postponed the final art. Indefinitely.
Hmmm....
Wish I could get myself in a lather over the turn of events, but part of me understands their dilemma. It's easy to think about something when it's hypothetical, a "wouldn't it be great... wish. But writing out a check makes things real really fast. See, John gets half of his fee once he gets the thumbs up on a comp sketch & a green light for final art. But even if the client thinks the comp art is great, as this couple did, if they don't give the "go," there's NO payment - not half, not a quarter, nada.
He offered to come down another $500 (good thing I wasn't there!). No dice.
"We have to think about it."
John & I have been married for 23+ years. Never, in all those years, has a client ever put the brakes on after requesting/reviewing a comprehensive sketch. Never occurred to me it was a possibility. Yet here we are, no commission, feeling that fierce breath down our necks & not enough $$ to shoo off the tax man.
But wait a minute... The name of the art show was Serendipity. And we called it that for a reason, not mere caprice. We need to remember that having faith in serendipity means doing so in fair weather AND foul.
Which has me wondering how all this, which looks headed for disaster, will ultimately turn out. I have full faith it will, so won't clutter cosmic energies up with nail biting. Will simply consider our best next step (which is never panic).
For one thing, praise be John has projects to fall back on. It would have been great if he'd done the portrait of Marianne on her beloved horse for Christmas instead of Valentine's Day 2013 (a present for her new hubster). But the other was requested first & would have made enough $ to pay off our bill. Don't fret over that. Instead, offer up thanks for all that is. Great things will come from it.
If nothing else, John has a terrific painting to work on for his portfolio - if they hadn't requested, he wouldn't have been spurred to start. Even now, there's swell comp art to show potential clients (lots of pilots out there). More than anything else, John has the sure knowledge he had every reason to believe we'd be covered with the tax man, which is what matters to me. We weren't lax in our responsibilities.
This is the second time in two years our ability to pay our $$$ tax bill has been set on its ear by forces we never considered. Intriguing dynamic. Not sure of the why behind it. Didn't know last year (our friends had never heard of insurance providers making such demands); equally clueless in the here & now.
What can we do? Open our hearts, open our willingness to learn whatever lessons come, be aware that we'd taken steps to cover our obligations.
Breathe.
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