MGB: A little rant to let off steam

Just a little rant to let off steam. I’m not a person that will criticize another person but this really
ticks me off. What ever happened to courtesy?
As most of you know I do MG drawings from my photographs of cars that are/were alive and
well at the time I photographed them. I put many hours in these drawings so I do not accept
commissions as I could not bring myself to charge what I have in the drawings in my time. But
s a courtesy to the folks whose cars I had photographed and done, I send a print of my drawing
to them as my way of saying thanks for allowing me to use their car as a model. I do not charge f
or this and most of the time the print is mounted and matted in the color scheme of their car.
The print sizes range from 11 x 14 to 12 x 16 inches. Now with that background let me tell you
about a drawing I did many years ago.
We were in Toronto at an MG T Register event and there was a beautiful MG SA sedan just
out of the restoration shop. The owner had not seen the car yet and I was unable to get a good
photo as there was always a crowd of people around admiring the car. I wrote it off as a bad idea
and forgot about it. Then the following year I had a chance to photograph the car at Hershey PA.
didn’t get at the drawing for some time but after I finally did finish it I couldn’t locate the owner no
matter how hard I tried.
We now come to a few weeks ago when I had a conversation with a good friend and antique
car expert. Talk came around to the SA and he told me it had been written up in a magazine he
had from the early 80’s. He sent me a copy of the article and I was able to get the owners name
and after some searching, his address and phone number. I called him and told him about the
drawing and asked if he still had the car. He didn’t and the sale was extremely heart wrenching
because it was to settle a divorce case. We chatted and I told him I was going to send him a print
of the car and confirmed that his address was correct. I mounted a print and matted it in the two
colors he had used on the car brown and cream. I sent this to him.
To this day almost a month later I have heard nothing from him about receiving the print or a
thank you. You would think at least he could have let me know that it got there safely. I’ve never
had a problem shipping my drawings and this would be a first if it happened but I doubt that it did.
I know he has my number because I put my business card on the back of all my drawings with my
name, address, phone number, and E mail address.

What ever happened to the courtesy of a simple “thank you”?

Thanks for listening to this rant.

Attached is the drawing of the car in this article.

George Herschell

I think "Thank you" must have been dropped form the dictionary you hear it so rarely lately. :(

George you have a right to be peeved. Most people would fall all over themselves trying to thank you for the sharing of your work and it always is that one that you went out of your way to help, that pokes a hole in your enjoyment.

Personally I love seeing your work. Not knowing the answer, but have you ever thought about putting together a book of your work. I suspect it would sell quite a few copies.

If you think adults are bad, you should come to school some day with me and work with 8th graders! :)

George,
Awsome drawing, I envy people with this type of talent, all I can do is stick figures and not very well at that.
Tom

Beautiful drawing George. Thank you from me for sharing that with us. As for the former owner. Don't waste your time or thought, lifes to short.

George,
I would be really disappointed, angry, annoyed... by his lack of courtesy and gratefulness. It is a shame to see "Thank You" and "Please" being ignored more and more in modern days. There seem to be a lack of politeness all around and I agree with Lee, it seems to get worse with the younger generations.

Damn fne drawing, sir.

Glen

Thanks to all for your compliments on my work.
I really love doing them and am happy when people appreciate my work.
As to "thank you's" and young people, this guy is close to my age and that's OLD.
Yes I am contemplating putting the drawings in book form some day and am working
on details right now. I know (having been in the advertising and printing business for about 40 years )
it will expensive to do, and do it the way I want it done. There are about 40 cars right
now to go in and I would do a companion sheet with details on each car pictured.

I'm also being pressured to put some of my writings in book form also. I do a monlhly column for our
newsletter and the club members are urging me to think about putting them in book form.
The articles are titled MG (S) Miles. Having owned MG's for over 50 years there are plenty of
smiles and a few tears along the way to write about.

Thanks again to all,

George

Don't put it off too long, George. As I learned from my little heart episode a few months ago, don't take time for granted. I think it would be wonderful to have both your art and your writings available in a form that would make it easy to share with the generations that will follow us....

George

Beautiful drawing, don't take it too personally, given the fellow's circumstances, he may have other things on his mind right now . It's no excuse for bad behavior, but it happens.

Maybe he would have been more grateful if the picture had the ex under the car!

George, your beautiful drawing(s) would warrant more than just a thank you in my book. The only excuse I can come up with is that his soon to be ex confiscated the mail....
:X

contact the MGOC, they may commission you...talk to Roger parker the Tech Advisor first.

Absolutely stunning drawing George.
Common curtosy seems to be a quaint custom of the past....

Overlook it, George. After losing that beauty in a divorce, he's probably still inebriated ;)

[quote="George Herschell"]

Yes I am contemplating putting the drawings in book form some day and am working
on details right now. I know (having been in the advertising and printing business for about 40 years )
it will expensive to do, and do it the way I want it done. There are about 40 cars right
now to go in and I would do a companion sheet with details on each car pictured.

I'm also being pressured to put some of my writings in book form also. I do a monlhly column for our
newsletter and the club members are urging me to think about putting them in book form.
The articles are titled MG (S) Miles. Having owned MG's for over 50 years there are plenty of
smiles and a few tears along the way to write about.
[/quote]

George

Keep us aware of your plans on the book as I am sure that many of us here would want to be first in line!

thats amazing...that kind of talent is always amazing..to paraphrase W Churchill, in the morning you will still be talented and he will still be a boar......

WOW George, that is a god given gift that you have, Do you do TVRs?????? I wold put you up in my home and feed you so you could take your picture

HI, I haven't been able to log on in forever, I have two jobs and I'm a full time college student, and all the computers at my house crashed at the same time for months...
we have like 3. Anyways I had some time to pop on to mgexp.

anyways I would be soooooo upset that drawing is amazing and it is obvious you put a lot of time into it, I would cry if I got a drawing like that of my
B, and I would also take the time to write an hand written thank letter. I can not believe that someone could be such a jerk.
I mean that is incredible....what type of pencils were you using...because I know you were using some pretty amazing graphite pencils for that and I'm
pretty sure you used a whole bunch of them.
good lord I would be fuming, I hope you didn't send the original copy
I wanted my MFA was even accepted to the AAA (American Art Academy) that only accepts like 150 students each year, and couldn't afford the 20k a semester...

Going through a divorce, losing a pride and joy MG, and heaven's knows what else. There is one heck of a chance the man is fundamentally, clinically depressed.

He should have sent you a note. And I wouldn't be surprised if you heard from him a year from now. It took my father years to recover from my parents divorce..

For many, only death of a child or spouse is tougher. I would be completely gutted.

Nannie,

I'll send you a PM later today and explain how and what I use to do the drawings.
My main business in art was Architectural Illustration but I decided I wanted to do
something with an MG theme and seeing as I own three, it was a no brainer which
cars to use. Thanks so much for your compliments and please do not give up on the
art. From what you told me you have a could have a very good future ahead of you
if you proceed.

Thanks again

George

Nice to see you posting again, Nannie. We wondered what happened to you!

George, as someone said before if you are thinking of doing a book of your drawings do it sooner rather than later as time can be cut short, as a Heart and Kidney transplant patient I can testify to that, not all get a second chance to enjoy more time on this planet.
That being said I hope you have many years ahead of you to do even more of your fantastic drawings for us all to enjoy looking at Thank You, and if a book is in the offing put me down for one.

ps/ I should be in your area around the 27th 28th June for a quick visit on my way back to Baltimore to ship my car back home after my tour of the States and Canada and MG2010.
Roger

Well, I'll thank you. You have a great talent. The larger MGs have always been a favorite of mine. You might consider the entire vehicle is a sore subject and the slight may have not been meant to you. I don't know the chap but I do empathize with the angst of divorce and property settlement. While good intentioned as it was on your part, it may have been less appreciated due to his personal circumstance.

The good deed is sometimes only knowing it was a good deed. On my part, I would have taken time to say thanks. But I suspect I have offended folks myself through my own thoughtlessness and forgetfulness.

I'd appreciate that George I always like learning about diffrent supplies and tools.
And I will most definitely keep drawing painting and throwing clay, its my other love in life
you outside of my MG.
and as someone else mentioned if you do make a book of the drawings I would love to have
one

Probably just another dumb Canuck from Trawna....just ignore us, we ain't got no manners! (tongue firmly in cheek) ;)

George, excellent work. For a less expensive publication, maybe try online photo books. Probably not quite the quality standard you would be looking for, but would certainly let you "trial balloon" your ideas for not too much coin.

Cheers,
Stu

I have to apologize to all for my lack of patience in being critical for not getting a thank you for the drawing.
I got a phone call today from the owner and they had been out of town and just got home. I was off base
and for that I'm sorry. He was thrilled with the drawing and most appreciative. Too bad I wasn't more patient
at the time I let out with my rant. My apologies to him and to all that answered.

Gerorge Herschell

Maybe he lurks on this forum! :D

Glad to hear that you "heard". My first thoughts were that the good old postal service had fumbled the ball and lost the mail.

That was my main concern that the package didn't get delivered at all.
And no he does not lurk on this forum that I know of,

George

Getting ready to make a little order from Abingdon Spares and noticed George did the cover work for their catologe.

Nice work George.

La Vern,

I did those for Gerry Gougen many many years ago when he owned Abingdon Spares.
He was a very good friend and I did those for him gratis.
I like to think my work has improved some since then. I also gave hm a complete
(at the time) set for his museum. A few years after he passed away his wife returned them to me.
We also presented him with a framed photograph of him upside down in his J-4
taken when he was racing it at Watkins Glen. Thazt was a looooong time ago.

George

I'm glad you heard from him, George. As you and I know, people have no idea how much work is really involved in producing a piece of art. It is something that is not thought of but when you look at a piece of art, look closer and examine each and every little scratch, stroke, mark, dot, etc. Each had to be put there by hand. Add them all up and now you see the true amount of work and patience involved in the sketch, painting, etc.

I remember one person (who eventually became an ex-wife) who when seeing one of my house renderings for the first time said, "You drew this? No... No you didn't." I replied, "Yes I did and had to draw each and every ink stroke you see."

I cant even do stick figues I do twig figures

George
You are a gracious and very generous person. Your renderings have been on many of the Car Clubs newsletters, show shirts etc.
Perhaps the divorce and uncertainty has clouded this individuals nature at this time.
Your recognition awaits in a much better place.
QikMGB