Meet Woody Slaymaker, president and owner of Slaymaker Fine Art

Q I really take pleasure ined reading your biography, as you are a real Renaissance Man. Tell us about your early introduction and interest in the worlds of art.

Art has been around me for as drawn out as I remember. As a child, my mother was constantly painting canvas or bas relief works were upon her easel as my sister and I drew pictures and encompassed her station. We were powerfully encouraged to have drawing works and my mother, Martha Slaymaker, would tutor us upon drawing and painting techniques as young children.

one time as a young boy, I drank a quart of turpentine when my mother wasn't looking, and I extremityed up in the hospital having my stomach cross-examineed This episode might explain my unusual behavior smooth today.

During my late mother's life, she had 150 one-person exhibits and sold 40,000 works. It looked that she was always preparing for an exhibit, with equal reason art was a consistent activity that dominated a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of of our collective lives. Her art is in the permanent collections of many museums worldwide. As we became older my mother showed us by what means to use her intaglio collagraph pres for relief prints and etchings. At a certain quantity of point, my sister and I would help her in the proces although, at the time, I was a great deal of more interested in athletics and other things young striplings in Indiana found amusing, besides art.

I did have to deal with my sister because she was allowed solitary to draw girls, and I was allowed to draw striplings However, my sister, Jill, betrayed me at 12 years advanced in years because she also started drawing striplings This was my first art deal gone bad, and it forced me to become suspicious of the art business.

Q count us about your world travels and in what manner that has affected your watch on business?

When I began selling art, I couldn't believe that I was getting paid for traveling. The excitement of going to novel cities and countries seemed too advantageous to be true.

above the past 27 years, I have worked each state in the Union, southern Africa, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Ireland, England, Jamaica, all of Europe Hong Kong Tibet, novel Zealand, P.R. of China, Japan and probably a small in number countries I have forgotten about.

Selling in non-Western countries is quite different than selling in the west. Negotiations and haggling are important parts of making the sale. Trying to "cut [i]or[/i] part of to the other the chase" will only make one's customer have feeling that they haven't honed into the best deal possible, in like manner it is necessary to play the game.

Business manners range dramatically from nation to nation as well. One's best preparation is to not away oneself in a traditional manner. not ever discuss politics, religion and sex level when people try to drag you into the discussions. Always be dutiful of their customs. It is important to be polite and not to gall It is also important to remember that the overseas accounts are usually making a great effort to use your art, and the value of their publicity usually makes this more difficult than dealing with an account from the United States.

Q You have a real talented wife, parents and family and why do you call yourselves "The Indiana Jone Family?"

When we were small children growing up in Indiana, our parents would pluck us out of school early and bring us back late as we all journeyed by the agency of vehicle to central Mexico and Central America. My parents were passionate about archaeology and we would travel around excavating various Mayan, Toltec, Aztec and Incan excavation sites. We were a part of many famous digs. To this day, I have unusual artifacts acquired from that time. a certain number of of the Mayan artifacts still have the original paint upon them.

Towards the extreme point of my life, I may donate them back to the rules from where they came. There is an entirely different political view today upon our activity than there was in the 1950 and early 1960 which I partially subscribe to.

Q You have a friend who is in the Guinness work of World Records. What was his qualifications?

In 1977 I was a foreign exchange scholar from Indiana University and attended La Universidad de Ibero Americana in Mexico City. As I was a piano major studying composition, I was placed in the abode of Senor Jacobo Puentis, who had made a living writing Mexican commercial music and jingles.

When I met him, he had no leg and was upon a respirator with emphysema, on the other hand he could speak well when it was remov He is in the Guinness volume of World Records for having been legally declared dead 17 times. He had been declared dead eight times before he was 12 years of advanced age He not only shared music and composition with me on the other hand his philosophical outlook was amazing.

Religious leaders from around the world came to diocese him occasionally to gather his experiences of death before he came back to life. He said that his will to live was just thus strong that he kept "bouncing back." He was a fascinating somebody and I learned a tremendous amount of philosophy from him.

Q in what way was your business changed above the last five years?

Our business has remained basically the same above the last five years, other than it increases in sales by the agency of various percentages annually. We are unusual in that we tender quality original works of art upon paper and canvas, and will not compromise our standards by dint of doing giclees or reproductions.