“You must be an artist.”

“Why, yes I am.  I like to paint and this is one of my pieces.”  said the woman in the green shirt.  Her eyes lit up when I walked over to her painting on the fence.  “I love painting florals.”

“These are fabulous!  Tell me, do you live in the area?”

Artists are expressive people.  Given the chance to exhibit their work and then, to tell someone like me about themselves and their art, most of the members of the Jackson Heights Art Club jumped, actually danced, before a surprised camera crew.

“Oh, and I also sing and entertain people on the side.  It keeps me out of trouble.”  said Tony, a charismatic elder man with wavy white hair.  “I paint portraits, mostly.  Lots of people ask me to paint portraits of their grandchildren but I don’t do more than three at a time.  I’m not that crazy.”

I find that people like to talk to me whether or not I am holding a microphone and accompanied by a cameraman.  It must be because I really like listening.  My inner ear is always searching for a great story, something that takes my breath away or stops me mid sentence.

We are storytellers by instinct and by instigation.   I am an instigator.  We all have our niche and mine is coaxing stories out of people.  Once someone shares something of themselves with you, you become complicit in a common history with them.  And if you can manage to remember their name, you really a rock star.   It helps if you have a great intern like Zanella with you handing out releases for people to sign.  That way you can sneak a peek at their info and amaze them with your powers of memory.  Or, you can ask Zanella to introduce herself to the person you have been listening to but whose name you don’t remember.

Short circuited short term memory is why we need interns.  To make us look like good listeners.

Do people like talking to you?

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Hoong Yee

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Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?