A Delightful Encounter

I recently had a delightful art encounter with a young girl who visited my booth at the Riverdale ArtWalk with her Mum.  I guessed her age at eight or nine but because of her confident demeanor and impressive knowledge about trees I felt that she was an old soul in a young body, and possibly on her way to being an arborist!  We had a great chat about trees and it was clear that my tree flower photographs resonated with her. When she asked me how much my 6 x 6 inch pieces are and I replied with the price of $95 she turned to her Mum and said that’s not too expensive.  I was a little taken aback, thinking that when I was her age, I didn’t have the money or the mindset to even consider buying anything for that amount of money let alone artwork!   Like me, her Mum seemed to be in awe of her daughter’s confidence and determination.  Although her Mum was very supportive of her possible choices she wisely encouraged her to visit other artists’ booths before making a decision. 

A short while later she returned with her Mum and told me she had decided on the photograph of a redbud flower titled “A Delicate Soul.”  I got my payment processing gear fired up and her Mum helped her make the payment with her bank card.  Again, I was a little taken aback by how well she handled the whole process and how much has changed since my childhood days of shaking my piggy bank to get a sense of how many coins I had saved up. 

I didn’t expect to see my young collector again, so it was a pleasant surprise when she returned later the same day with her sister and friends, and then the following day with her grandparents to proudly show them where she bought her piece and introduce them to me.

This has to be one of the loveliest interactions I’ve had with a collector, I felt so appreciated!  

I hope that our paths cross again, I would love to see how she deepens her connection to trees and I would be honoured if she gives more of my art pieces a new home!