Saturday, January 10, 2009

Starving Artists?

This is one place that I will not be going to on Sunday.

Starving Artist Group

This comes around every now and then...although I think mostly in the spring time.
They show their artwork at local hotels in the area and you can buy "an original" painting for $7-$49. Nothing over $50 is one of their sayings. I am not a fan at all!

This makes me crazy in fact.

I don't know about you, but I am an art collector, and this sort of thing makes me really angry! I know how these paintings are produced, and it is not pretty. The canvas rolls down a factory line. There are multiple artists who paint their little sections on the canvas and it can even be re-rolled so that the artist paints the same tree on the canvas (just in a different place).

This gives 'Starving Artists' a whole new meaning. These artists are getting paid peanuts for their efforts. The final artist down the factory line is instructed to sign the painting with a well known last (western) name, like Smith, or Jones. The people who paint these paintings don't even know the English language. I am sorry, I just saw a commercial for this nonsense and I am riled up by it.

Please don't ever buy any art from a starving artists sale! You are not buying art! You are buying sweatshop forced art.


Vent over.

7 comments:

kerry hawkins art and photo said...

I always see those commercials and wondered about that, Now I know. Thanks. "Starving artist" has a whole new meaning. Plus the paintings are really ugly

Suzanne said...

i had never heard of this before - that really is awful!

Kim Morin Weineck said...

Now I'm riled up, too.
Growl!!!

Me said...

I've seen these commercials and thought the idea was so lame! Who goes to these things?? Thanks for the post, I didnt know that much about it before! Awful!

Unknown said...

Wow. I always wondered about those sales!! I knew their had to be ugliness behind the scenes. Thanks for cluing me in finally after all this time! I'd love to read a story or two - I wonder if there are any expose stories out there in newspapers or magazines. Please let me know if you know of any! Thanks!

nancyrosetta said...

I just found this little tidbit about the processes of these sweatshop paintings. Please see the third paragraph to see what I was getting at in my post.

http://www.drloriv.com/lectures/starvingartists.asp#begin

It still irks me even tho the commercials here have stopped for the time being.

Thanks to Kathy for making me look a bit further to find some clarification. It's sickening.

Who goes to these things? Perhaps people who 'want to support the arts' but don't have the money. Little do they know!

nancyrosetta said...

That didn't make a link, but please copy it and paste it into your browser for more info.

And, I said 3rd paragraph, but I meant the 3rd section down, titled 'Starving Artists: The Process'
It's enough to open anyone's eyes to this horrible artistic travesty of an Art Sale.

Read the whole thing though, it is not too long and I think it is very eye opening.