It was probably the largest audience I ever had. I’m probably not a good judge of numbers but I’d estimate there were well over a thousand people in the room. It was for a non-profit ministry, and the person called me, they said “I am expecting you’ll do this for free.” I had no problem doing that because I believed in their cause, but the implication was clear. I’d get paid in exposure. And it was true, a lot of people got to see me do what I do. Well sort of. I had a whole three minutes in the program to do a large painting. That’s not enough time to do it right, and while I tried hard, it was less than stellar.
The end result of my largest crowd ever, was not one booking and the tight time frame and other demands had me put a piece of work out there what was clearly not my best.
That’s the thing, you have to be your own advocate. I’m not saying don’t work for free for causes you believe in. Please do that. Offer your time to God and trust Him to do with it what He will. That being said, you need to know if you can do a good job in the time you are given, and if you can’t it’s probably better to say no. I’m hoping my heart glorified God that day, because my work simply wasn’t good enough. Exposure is a two way street.
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