My AI assistant, Claude, greets me with the welcome screen “Coffee and Claude Time?” I certainly appreciate the algorithmic Reveille that heralds the day’s collaboration (although “Michelle Returns!” is my favorite). But starting a new business means balancing digital efficiency with real-life connection — with real people in real rooms.

Intent on real networking, I browsed local networking events this Wednesday morning and discovered, with well-timed serendipity, that the Denison Chamber of Commerce was hosting a ribbon cutting today for the new Goodwill ArtWorks center — the same gallery I’d “accidentally discovered” just one week earlier, hours before their grand opening reception.

Rewind: One Week Earlier

I’d received a swag bag at that opening event, but between admiring art and striking up conversations, I didn’t explore my goodies until two days later. That’s when I noticed the golden ticket, a la Willy Wonka. The bottom edge declared: WIN A FREE PAINTING CREATED BY ARTIST: MATHART. 

The artist Mathart — Matt Bardwell — is a dynamic Texoma artist and creator of The Odd Frog gallery. I’d admired his painting “Big Innards,” a surreal and organic tangle of celestial viscera. Did I miss an art samples table at the event? Maybe there’d been a raffle I didn’t enter? Either way, the ticket was a pretty party favor, and I added it to the thicket of my home art space.

Wait. Another Ticket?

It wasn’t until this Wednesday’s Goodwill ArtWorks ribbon cutting, as I made my way through the gallery displays, that I overheard Matt Bardwell mention “golden ticket” in conversation with a small group.

“I got one of those in my bag from the event,” I offered casually. “What a cute idea!”

Matt turned to look at me directly. “YOU have the other ticket?!”

Wait. Other ticket? As in, there were only two? 

“It was a real ticket?” I asked. “For free art by YOU?” I eyed the stack of small, painted plaques in his hands. Did I spy an alluring bit of cat art?

“Custom art,” Matt clarified. “Tell me what you’re into, and I’ll paint a piece for you.”

I may have actually swooned.

“Cats,” I piped. “And old trucks. I love old trucks. I have a 1977 longbed GMC named Abigail.”

“So like Big Daddy Roth art?” Matt quizzed.

Re-swoon. Yes. Exactly like Big Daddy Roth’s Rat Fink and Flying Eyeball aesthetic — that irreverent hot rod culture mashup of cartoons and chrome. I could see that fearless Rat Fink maximalism in Matt’s “Big Innards” piece. And I had the golden ticket to get one for myself.

The Art of Showing Up

Showing up in person and staying curious about your community can yield connections that transcend digital efficiency. This is what happens in the meanwhile of real life: A Tuesday morning decision to check local networking events led me to a ribbon cutting at a gallery I’d stumbled into just a week earlier, where I discovered that an overlooked “free art” memento was actually my ticket to an art aesthetic I love.

I’ll update when I see what cats, trucks, and Big Daddy Roth-inspired chaos Matt creates. For now, I’m just grateful I didn’t toss that golden ticket.