I was at a small art gallery that featured the work of 1-2 artists at a time. Just a single, large room with the different pieces hanging on the wall, or maybe a couple stands in the middle of the room for ceramics or other pieces.
This particular artist had a series that was basically just a bunch of checkerboard patterns of heavy, heavy graphite. Each square ran perpendicular to the ones beside it so it would catch the light, but probably would have been impossible to photograph well.
I was going off about how I could have done it when I was a kid because I ALWAYS pressed down too hard with the pencils and got the “lead” all over my hands. And no freaking way was it worth $800, even if it did include the frame. It was kind of rude the amount of crap I was dishing out, but I was pretty unimpressed.
Turns out the dude was standing like two people away. He was chatting with some hipster friend, but deep down I know he heard me.
I just hope his main takeaway from the experience was that he needed to draw better. And maybe something less concretely abstract as a checkerboard pattern.