How can a simple watercolor portrayal of a Ms. Pac Man get someone fired from a job? We’ll let me explain. Let’s go back to the magical year of 2003 where I was working the customer service lines for Delta Faucets in this cold, soulless call center. In retrospect, this has to be one of the worst jobs that I’ve ever had the displeasure of exposing myself to. Basically, look at it this way. Our job was to be punching bags for disgruntled customers who were having problems installing their newly bought faucets. I’m no plumber! Call a real professional. Anyway, on with the story.
There was a considerable amount of downtime working the phones and often people busied themselves by reading a book or surfing the web. But I’m much more creative than that. So what did I do? I brought in all my arts and crafts supplies and painted in my cubicle. It was great! My office looked more like an artists studio than a place of business. The management hated it. In fact, they threatened me numerous times that I couldn’t paint at my desk. But I continued on despite their bearing down.
“What if a client comes walking in here? We can’t have them seeing our employees doodling. Get rid of this stuff. We’re not going to tell you again!”
You know that part in “Rainman”, where Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise are stuck in that hotel room? Dustin Hoffman is sitting on the edge of the bed drawing compulsively with a juice box next to him while Jeopardy plays in the background. It was just like that. But picture that in a cubicle while I’m painting a Ms. Pac Man machine trying to answer questions into a headset. I dug this picture out recently and it immediately took me back to that moment in time. I wish I had a real introspective meaning as to why I created this, but the real answer is out of boredom. Maybe I was subconsciously trying to connect to an entity that lied in my childhood. Maybe I was on the edge of adulthood and trying to cling onto anything that had anything to do with my youth. Maybe I’m just a weirdo. Who knows.
I didn’t end up actually getting fired. I quit before they got around to it. I was definitely on the chopping block though. You could see the disappointment and resentment in my boss’ eyes whenever he told me to stop painting. Maybe that’s why I kept doing it.
Year’s later, I did a bigger painting of the machine where I merged it with Al Hansen’s “Yoko Ono Piano Drop” Acrylic on board of course!
