M.J. Clayton is a high profile Art Critic in Chicago. He is known throughout the country for his heartless and angry reviews, and is often scolded by his publisher. After a particularly mean-spirited batch of reviews, he takes a vacation to his small cottage on Mackinac Island. At a local pub, he awkwardly meets up with Frank, one of the angry artists who had been bashed by one of Clayton's recent reviews. The beers and hard liquor start to take hold, and before he knows what hit him, Clayton makes an impulsive and sloppy proclamation that any idiot can make art, and bets that he can prove it. The next morning, hung over, using supplies happily furnished by Frank, he finds himself struggling to fulfill his wager with no particular talent. Downtown is an annual art festival, and because of his notoriety and rantings at the bar, M.J. Clayton painfully finds himself featured prominently in festival literature. His connection to the national art scene makes him some kind of a local hero.