Here is a flower and thank you.
It was 2017, freshly after my mind took a spin and I was trying to realign myself. To understand trust again, with myself and others. I remember being with my dad at his friend's wine shop in Birmingham and I was currently listening to the audio book of "The Art of Asking" by Amanda Palmer. The shop was originally in Ferndale but moved to Birmingham during that time. My dad collaborated his artwork often with his wine appreciating friend. He created a wine label for them, he displayed his paintings in the back tasting room, and even did a interactive window mural to promote the opening of the new wine shop. I remember thinking what my dad was doing with his friend was exactly what Amanda was talking about.
Amanda Palmer is a musician who became well known from their role in band The Dresden Dolls. Amanda's "The Art of Asking" TED talk went viral in 2013, when there was a peak of concern with pirating music. Amanda flipped the concept on its head saying, "Don't make them pay for music, let them." This raged not only the artist community but record labels were not to happy about it ether. Yet, I believe Amanda's concept still rings true and can be applied to so much of life. It's the matter of trusting in others, your relationships, to fuel your income that can fuel your craft. Amanda has many bold examples of this act of trusting. From coach surfing while the band toured to striping naked and letting fans write on her. What seemed like sheer luck that Amanda wasn't taken advantage of it was really based around a means of trust. Amanda talked about the tender and angry interactions during their previous full-time job before the band got popular. Amanda was a street performer, dressed as a 8-foot bride painted white that when given a dollar gave the buyer a flower, eye contact, and said "Thank you." This interaction between stangers was stunning to me. Throughout all my previous jobs, as a waiter, a medical receptionist, a nanny, a assitant gardener...even selling lemonade as a kid, I've found this trusting interactions with strangers to be meaningful. Authentic trust, not a manipulated trust. You hoped for a capital transication, yes, but I had a fascination to comparing the various interactions. The deep feelings some would subltely reveal just by having minor human interaction. The act of asking stands out to me. There is such a humble to that but also a pressure on the audience to provide. What if the audience doesn't have the means? What if the audience finds other things important to buy and not this? Then they will buy other things anyway.
This post content was created by Giuliana Cascardo. All visuals are self taken or created, all writing is original aside from any statistical or historic information which is sourced by external links. Any photos that are not taken or created by Giuliana Cascardo are sourced in photo discription. Nothing in this post is affiliated with any sponsors or commercial work.
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