AutoDesk’s Old Fashion Map of the World Street Painting

Occasionally I get client referrals from other artists who decline a project and pass it on because it doesn’t suit them nor meet their financial compensation requirements. Some temporary art gigs get passed on to many others before the client contacts me. This mural project arrived in 1997, before I had internet and email which is where I do my most efficiently project negotiations these days. 

My Artist friend Jay in SF called me just before AutoDesk phoned. 

“Erin, Jay here. AutoDesk wants to hire a street painter as entertainment for a computer convention with 1,500 attendees – here is the catch, they only want to pay someone $10 and hour for four hours.” 

“Wow. I chuckled. $40. That’s barely lunch and gas to get there.” 

We both laughed. 

He continued, “I told them that doesn’t meet my daily minimum cost, apparently they have already tried 4-5 other artists and no one wants to do it... I gave them your name in case you want to take it as a ‘ProBono’ piece.” 

Though I regularly attended festivals that raise money for art classes in schools, I had no intentions of taking on a “freebie commissioned piece” for a corporate business just to share my talents... or to “get exposure”. I knew AutoDesk was an up and coming big company that easily could afford to pay entertainment well. Perhaps they needed to better understand the value of the skills they were seeking and what it took to produce an intriguing street painting. 

“Perhaps they need more information. I will talk to them. Thanks for thinking of me.” 

Their call came in a few minutes later on my landline. I did not have a cell phone then.

At that time, I lived in a 400 square foot, one-bedroom apartment with my grade-school-age daughter. Her room was the 10’ X 10’ bedroom. My room was the small L-shaped living/dining/(bed)room. I had no sizable floor space to draft pounce patterns for large street paintings. Yet I also felt determined to find ways to take on jobs I enjoyed and not get stopped by ‘impossibility-thinking’. 

 I did not focus on what might hold me up.

In those days, I was also fiercely athletically fit. I ran the Stanford Dish Property hills on the meandering deer trails most early mornings; I biked twelve-plus miles, (a 90 minute ride up a 2,385ft climb in elevation) to Skylonda a retreat center on Skyline Blvd to do 5 massages twice a week; and I attended nearly daily Ashtanga Yoga classes. I cleaned the yoga studio weekly in trade for unlimited classes at Yoga Source – that was my health insurance. And people often asked me what I did to stay so fit. 

I had a “can-do” attitude and was not easily daunted. 

I had this quote initially attributed as “Goeth’s Couplet” on my refrigerator that guided my momentum forward, it read: 

 

 

“Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. 

Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. 

All sort of things occur to help, that otherwise would never have occurred. 

A stream of events arise from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no one could have dreamed would come their way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. 

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” 

I chased magic. 

To override negative assessments and conclusions, I practiced being curious and inquisitive ahead of being convinced and sure something could not work; I just did not take all the shit-talk in my head seriously. That inner gremlin voice told me how hard or terrible or challenging something would be I would say things back to it, like; “Maybe? And maybe not, we’ll see”. (A variation of “Good new, bad news, who knows.”) 

I felt determined to find a way amongst repeatedly arising daunting obstacles to complete projects that inspired me. And I often presented my passions, desires and intentions up to spirit and said out loud, 

“This is what I want to do. It doesn’t seem like it can happen! You figure out how and show me the way.” 

A few minutes later I am on the phone “Hello” 

“Hi!, May I speak with Erin?” 

“This is she.” 

“Hi Erin, this is Jennifer from the Marketing Department at AutoDesk up in San Rafael. I got your name form Jay Mercado, he referred me to you as a highly recommended Street painter! How are you today?” 

She had such an enthusiastic, peppy, upbeat voice I had to hold my phone receiver away from my head to save my ears. 

 “I am fine, Jay mentioned you would call.” 

“We are hoping to hire you the weekend after next to do a street painting as entertainment art, so attendees can have a visual reprieve while they are at an Autodesk computer convention at the Marin Civic Center. Are you interested?” 

 I think to myself, Wow not a lot of time to secure, a contract, a paid deposit, or collect supplies, or get kid-care so I can be up in Marin the whole weekend. 

Hmmmm a short deadline... “What kind of image and size did you have in mind?” 

 “Our main idea is to WOW the crowd. We want something very large and colorful and impressive.” 

She went on, “You would be out in the patio outside the Marin Civic Center Auditorium. We want attendees who will have been in the dark all day listening to lectures, to come outside and view something bright and colorful, refreshing and fun so they can feel inspired, before they return to learn more technical information. Are you familiar with the location?” 

“Yes. I grew up in Marin and know it well.” 

“Oh wow! That is great! Well the budget we have to hire you covers four hours for $10 an hour. How does that sound!?” 

“Oh... hmmmm”. (I quietly chuckle under my breath and take a pause.) 

“Have you ever seen an impressive chalk painting on the pavement?” 

“No, but I have seen photos. My marketing team has, they suggested it” 

“Aside from the size, what makes a street painting impressive is the clear details, that are usually reached by the last 4 hours at the end of two days or twenty hours worth of hard work on it.” I think about what else she might not know about street painting and continue to inform her. 

“Do you know the kind of prep work that goes into creating an impressive chalk mural?” 

“Uh, well, I guess I don’t.” 

“Most of the chalk paintings I do now are 12’ X 12’. Aside from the couple of days it takes to draw a chalk the image, the first few hours on site of a typical street painting are spent arriving and setting up, and putting the image outline on the surface. If you paid me for four hours of work, it would only cover the first few hours that would be preparations hours. There would not be anything impressive about that. It takes many days prep to be ready to create something impressive over a weekend.” 

I went on, “Having grown up in Marin, I attended many events there. I am very familiar with the polished cement walkways and that patio. It is embedded with shiny agates; the patio at the Auditorium is not a suitable surface for chalk painting. There is not enough of a bite to the polished stones to hold the chalk. However I have experience chalking on canvas when the surface at a particular location does not accept chalk well. I would need to order and sew-up a hangable canvas in advance as well as trace the image onto it before I arrive that weekend.” 

“Oh now that is interesting! You mean instead of temporary art we would be able to keep it?" 

“Yep”. It does limit the size to the canvas I can get short notice.” 

“Wow! I like this idea!” 

“I need time to purchase those materials and draft the image onto it. So the sooner I know, if this job is a go, the better, so I can get everything I need in time. Do you have an image already?.” 

 “Yes! We selected an image of pool balls” 

“Beach balls on a swimming pool?” 

“Billiard balls. Cause they are colorful!” 

“Oh. Hmmm, that content is not typical of the images that wow crowds. And it would definitely under-utilize my skills.” I continue, 

“Historically people get really impressed with large chalk reproductions of old master’s paintings because they are of faces and show emotions. And viewers are familiar with the images from famous paintings that they would normally have to travel to a foreign country to see these images close-up in-person. The tradition of Street Painting began in Italy. Skilled artisans who worked in the cathedrals would reproduce a painting they had seen inside the cathedrals in chalk in the piazzas or courtyard patios just outside the churches to advertise their abilities in order to secure their next clients." 

"In the beginning of street painting in California many original California street painters took on the tradition of reproducing old master’s paintings to shows off their talents. I am happy to send you some samples of my work, I in particular, do quite well rendering compassionate faces.” 

“I guess we had no idea of what is possible, we were trying to choose something easy.” 

“Well, if you do hire me, and you are attempting to wow the crowd, perhaps reconsider the content to something that has meaning to AutoDesk or represents their mission.” 

I went on, “Just so you know what to expect, it often takes a few days to secure a job, finalize an image, and get the deposit and a contract signed. Then more days to plan and design the image and draft an outline and enlarge it to full size and so an accurate outline of the image can be transferred to the ground. Then time is spent to recheck all supplies to see which particular colors need to be replenished. Then there is time spent packing up, traveling to the area, setting up, transferring the outline and then coloring in the piece. In the end, it takes time to clean up and pack supplies and travel home. Generally my minimum charge for a local weekend gig is about $1,500.” 

“Oh wow! That’s a lot! I had no idea! I don’t think that’s in our budget! We just want to give the attendees something uplifting and colorful to cast their eyes on when they come out for breaks. In fact we thought pool balls would be a simple fun image. But I did not know it was so expensive!” 

 “I charge $50- $75 an hour or $500/day on large jobs for my services – plus the cost of materials. So your $ budget does not even cover an hour of my time. Generally there are full days of work in advance to research and collect references and choose or design the composition, prepare the image, so the actual first few hours time would be spent, l0ng before I packed up and arrived on site”. 

“Oh” 

“Well, now you know what is involved, I can fax you a contract. Talk with your marketing team. Perhaps you can get needed funds allotted to have something impressive created for this event.” I say all this very matter of factly in business speak. 

“I look forward to hearing back from you! Please keep in mind for me to have enough time to pull this off I need to hear back from you in a day or two at the latest and I will need a signed contract and a paid deposit before we start and a final check on the last day of the event.” “OK, Thank you, you have been very helpful and I will get back with you soon to let you know.” 

And then I got busy and took the next logical step toward competing it even without having a finalized contract. On a whim, just to be prepared, in case it came through. I went and picked up enough heavy duty primed painters canvas to do an 8’ X 10’ image. I shopped at the lumber yard for two, eight foot long 1 & 3/4” dowels to insert in the top and bottom sleeves, I would sew. I also bought 100 feet of lovely shiny 1/2” white nylon rope and four finial ends to put on the end of the dowels. And I spoke to my daughter’s grade school across the street from our apartment to see if I could use their multipurpose room to enlarge the image. They agreed I could use it one or two afternoons that week when it was not in use. 

Without knowing nor having any reassurance nor any answers in that moment, I simply knew if it was going to happen in the short period of time available, many things had to happen in advance that would need to happen now, in order to successfully complete this. I would need to act as if it is all going to be approved. 

Instead of thinking something was impossible or impractical, or unlikely to happen well, I began to bank on the possibility of it all coming together, being approve, with a deposit requisition issued and a check arriving to set financial security for the project. 

Regardless of my conservative nature and clear awareness of the problematic reality of tight time constraints or the risk of financial investments in materials I could not afford to spend money on without being reimbursed, with this project, I took risks against incredible odds and kept moving forward to complete it even amongst incredible set backs that included extremely high outside temperatures well above 105* that week. 

A day or two later she faxed a signed contract and sent a deposit check. I got busy sewing up the canvas. And at the last minute they changed the image from the simple pool balls to an Antique, Old Fashion Map of the world. Which was about ten times harder and more intricate and complicated to draw, yet much more interesting and inspiring to paint, so I just went with it. The transferring of the image that might have taken two hours, took two days in an unairconditoned room, at 103*. I traced all lines in pencil while the canvas was taked to the woodne wall and the projector was across the room. Then I put it o the floor and sweated all over the canvas as I traced all the pencil lines of the image with a Sharpie marker. 

I secured childcare for my daughter and packed-up my Honda Civic and drove up to Marin the night before and arose early with the sun to run the hills in Lucas Valley Hills fire road after staying at my Dad’s in the house I grew up in. 

When I got to AutoDesk to set up my canvas to project the lettering on my piece from an overhead projector, a few minutes after I got the projector at the right angle and distance away from my canvas, and was ready to trace the outlines of the letters all the lights and electricity suddenly shut off. Due to an intense heat wave over 105*, a 4-hour long power outage kept me from being abe to transfer typeset lettering to phrases. (AutoDesk had not entirely decided what it would say, until that Saturday morning so I could not do it in advance.) 

The electricity came back on hours later. It was after noon when I came out of their offices and drove to the short distance to set up at the auditorium patio. It was already 100* out and it remained that and hotter all weekend. My only saving grace was a rented umbrella that offered me filtered sunlight-shade. 

When the catering company came to pick up the umbrella at 4 pm Sunday Evening... I was nearly in tears due to being overheated.  I begged him to please leave it until it was the last item they needed to pack up. 

I finished at 7:30 pm and packed up and drove to AutoDesk and climbed up into their second story rafter-beams in the lobby to tie and secure ropes to hang it from. 

 It remained there for about ten to twelve years.