Let’s Look at Restaurant Menus in a Different Way

Caramel, mocha, cookies and cream, toffee, cherry pistachio, chocolate orange with white chocolate chunks…

There are SO many different flavors of ice cream. The few I’ve listed above are but a small sample of the thousands of ice cream flavors.

Why so many? Because everyone has different tastes. And you probably have several that are your favorites.

Typically, you won’t buy just one flavor. If you’re like me you’ll probably come home with a variety of flavors, even one that sounds so exotic you just HAVE to give it a go.

The same concept goes for color preferences, home styling preferences, fashion preferences, and so many other areas of our lives.

AND, the same thing goes for art preferences.

Someone might like just black-and-white paintings, or realism, or landscapes, or abstracts, or still life.

Think about all the famous painters out there and think how many different opinions are floating around about which painter is the best.

Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Rothko, Pollock… Which one is your favorite?

And do you think your choice is going to be the same as everyone else’s?

Of course not!

Then why do we expect and hope everyone will like our art when we put it out into the world?

Because we are all humans and want to be liked.

Someone not liking our work has nothing to do with liking us, but we can get suckered into thinking that.

Think about going into a restaurant and looking at the menu filled with tons of different choices.

Each person at the table is going to order something different.

I would probably choose a hamburger with grilled onions and sweet potato fries.

My son would choose the kale salad with chicken.

My daughter would probably choose the shrimp and grits.

NOW imagine if that menu was not food but choices of colors and genres of paintings.

Each person would choose different colors and a different genre.

One person might want bold colors in a still-life painting.

Another person might want neutral colors in an abstract painting.

Another person might want a black-and-white portrait sketch.

And another person might want a large, muted landscape or seascape.

Their choice has nothing to do with the fact that the other choices are better or worse. It is just their choice.

Nothing more.

So, remind yourself the next time someone doesn’t like your painting or chooses to purchase someone else’s, it’s just a different choice.

It’s not a reflection on how good or bad your work is.

They might just have wanted a small realistic painting of an orange and not a large colorful abstract floral.

So, lets come back to our ice cream choices… what’s your favorite?

Mine is Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche, and I add crushed Reese’s buttercups on top.

* Click HERE to learn about the Art with Adele Academy.

* Click HERE to get my FREE minicourse, “Kickstart Your Abstract Painting.”