Standards!

Hmmmm......

While reading from one my fav web sources for info, the last week or so some interesting stuff appeared. Now here's some background...For many years now I have strived to produce thought inspiring,interesting, colorful, images and artworks. But this last little while I have noticed that our/my fellow socientans have absolutely no idea what is considered note worthy in the field of art, oooor maybe its just me! A month or two ago I saw an ad for the position of sculpture instructor and it kinda pissed me off. I think what it is/was , is that I have the skills but not the paper, and the more I thought about it (knowing lots of artists) I realized not many would fit the bill. None of the good artist I know have the paper either, so how would this (reputable) place find such a person to teach young impressionable minds?

When I first started doing art stuff I consciously decided to try and do what Warhol did (to create interesting stuff with everyday items) only I didn' want to sell crap just because I could come up with a good pitch/story , I wanted to do what I considered quality art. Recently I also read an article about how art has/is slowly moving away from skill to story or pitch under the guise of sophistication (thats my interpretation, of fine artists generally lack skills as in fine art looks like an unskilled kids "designed/produced" it) and I tend to agree. Digital art is well I'll share when I think I'm good enough with the tools to have an opinion.

What I read and saw shocked me! The art and images I saw really lacked skill (imho) and what folks were getting all excited about was well the equivalent to a grandma/pa getting all gooed up about G-childs first step...you know "Panda photo ops" kinda thing. The art just really lacked... except for one artist that was producing or rather re-producing really complicated photo images (ie imagine painting shadows and high lites  to represent wrinkled up tin foil). Not an easy task but not impossible (just photo-real with heavy detail) and not original. Anyway the rest of the stories included a 3 year old with a Sony dslr camera that was the pride of his parents (and apparently all that witnessed his tiny greatness...except me)etc... Another artist was receiving great acclaim for some of their work, the example was an image, painted in dark rust/dark red colors. the image was basically a poorly painted window (canvas size) with 4 panes....And then there is the "fringe festival" and the act that involves 3 Mayo enemas......Now if that constitutes art there is something dreadfully wrong with what we perceive to be art.
"stolen from Wiki"     Wiktionary defines the noun 'artist' (Singular: artist; Plural: artists) as follows:

1. A person who creates art.
2. A person who creates art as an occupation.
3. A person who is skilled at some activity.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term "artist":

• A learned person or Master of Arts
• One who pursues a practical science, traditionally medicine, astrology, alchemy, chemistry
• A follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice
• A follower of a manual art, such as a mechanic
• One who makes their craft a fine art
• One who cultivates one of the fine arts – traditionally the arts presided over by the muses

A definition of Artist from Princeton.edu: creative person (a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination).

In today's obvious definition of artist "Skill" (especially) and "Imagination" have very little to do with art. I could go on about what I've seen. I suppose the most tragic thing is we the people haven't a clue really as to what constitutes art. Since we Anglos invaded North America  our society is made up of many groups of people with different ideas so our culture appears to be just about as mixed up. I grew up around artist type people and though I got it, guess not! I (silly me ) always thought that an artist was measured in their ability to manipulate required tools to produce desired effect. Picasso produced some weird stuff but before he did that he produced some stellar still life images (that incidentally got him exactly no-where). Oh ya another example of unskilled art....there was this guy that "designed " a stainless steel rectangular block about 20ft tall 3ft thick and 9 ft wide with a twist... it was installed in a park by a steel worker... In the newspaper of that town's story about the art piece no one cared about the "artist" because he just watched the welder fabricator.....the comments were a reflection of this..."why"   and then " I sure like the way the grind pattern is done/finished (again the weld/fab guy) It was pretty funny.... What this thing was suppose to represent I don't even remember it was that relevant.

All this just kinda makes you wonder if this is considered art then what do people like myself call ourselves.....and do I stop doing art and just talk about doing it and describing it for lay-people to make for me if I want to "still" call myself an artist? I talked to a gallery owner recently that was telling me all about this sculptor that does farm animals (predominantly horses) and then "has" them cast for her.... I think to truly call yourself "Artist" you must be able to produce whatever it is you do from start to finish "And" show skill  in the execution with the tools, along with originality in style at least.

                      One would like to think there are standards to be upheld....even if only out of respect for those that persevered before us....... As far as the teaching gig goes I feel it s better to just do and leave the teaching to the experts (with the paper)...lol and I'd only show you how the tools work anyway so what would that be worth...

Stone carving: 1) not what I remember..........

           I've done a few carvings over the years and a recently (a yr ago lol) I went out to one of the old mine around here and found some nice looking stone. So I had taken a file with me so as not to grab anything to hard as I don't want to spend a month of Sundays working on a piece. Well it all looked good on paper...but not so much in reality...grrrr....I thought it would be a nice revitalising break from painting...hmmm

So there I am with my selection of chisels' grinders, hammers, files, air-chisels ect... and I have this one huge grinder that I call the beast (when its on the shear power/cyn force of this thing is unreal (its almost scary), and feels like it could just fly away), it was out too. I have a good look at this rock and come up with an idea and start in or rather try....Everything I brought out moves from one of the table to the other as I try different tools on this piece of "soapstone" but to no serious consequence..  So I will have to get some softer stone and maybe I can convince someone to show me where the soft stuff is. I'm no expert but I do know enough to be dangerous apparently and all my initial tests made me think this was the stuff. The last couple of pieces i did were from found stone as well and I had no problem. The only thing that did work were my air hammer/chisel and the "beast" .....only problem is I have a steel cutting blade on the beast and it was out of balance to boot so it was a nightmare holding onto it. If I go with an actual pneumatic stone carving chisel  setup instead of my air hammer chisels my guess is it will work out better and I won't wreck the chisel lol, nor the (not yet acquired) mason blade for the beast. By the way, when the "steel" cutting blade (lead edge) came apart it caught me in the foot and leg so remember; don't wear sandals choose work boots, put your safety goggles on as I did...

In the end I've learned you need a high cfm compressor if your going to use air tools as air consumption is quite a bit (and that is the way to go imho). You also need a really good dust mask (or fresh-air mask) as soapstone can have fun things in it like asbestos and that's really bad to breath in. But so is any ground stone/rock dust...can you say silicosis of the lung...(not much fun).Having the right tools (pneumatic) titanium/or carbide grinding bits are a bit pricey but they are second to none! To be safe, pic stone from a reputable dealer so you don't have the "hard stone" issue I just had unless of course you know something about stone. If the stone had been as soft as I had tested/thought it was I would have had it roughed out in far less time than it took to write this..... Any thoughts on soapstone turning hard? is the answer store in water? if so does it need to be dark as well?

Busy work & Canada’s Finest.

 So I’m a little off track with this art work lately since there is just so much outta whack in the world(I am working on something though actually a few things).
 Ok so in Canada if you “had” an issue with something you would grab some bristol/poster board from the drug store, an Industrial sized felt pen ....scribble your contempt of something on said board and hit the streets. (being mindful of traffic, horse drawn carriages, lawns private property etc...within reason of course)

So today/yesterday the coroners “Ruling “on the Polish guy’s (Robert Dzeikanski) death at the Vancouver airport in the arrivals area where the Cops tazered him (for brandishing a stapler) was published. The coroner rules that Roberts death at the hands of the RCMP a “homicide”. In the last few years there have been a few things like this happen. One street guy shot and killed, a result of two of our finest’s thinking that shooting him was the best way to disarm him... even though he was kneeling with his hands up (he was brandishing a box cutter and was mentally ill). Another disturbed individual holding up traffic waving a bicycle chain was shot to death.... sort of the same way (the tons of cops standing around could have easily over powered both these people).

Which brings me to this. This past Friday 3 adults and one 12yr old girl were arrested by (wait for it)................50 riot “geared up” police. They were being removed from their site of protest (A band office doorway). The/Their band (95% apparently) is/was protesting the councils lack of transparency and non inclusion in consultation re land and resource use.....and thus the 24hr a day protesting!
Also in the last few days another group of protesters..including a 74 yr old guy with cancer (now on hunger strike in jail).. again first nations people protesting lack of consultation and compensation for the expropriation of more of their lands/resources. (this time after winning the rights in court..lol what a farce)
Not to forget the folks in Quebec that were protesting...270 of them were arrested for unlawful assembly (they hadn’t really started their march yet and out of no where the guys geared up in riot gear appeared and just brutalized/manhandled all these people into paddy wagons and dragged them off to jail(and releasing them with a $600 fine). Unless this isn’t canada any more these arrests are un-constitutional. Not to exclude the g20/8 summit a few years back or the arrest (?) and detainment of a 20 yr old woman a few days ago for supposedly “uttering threats” against the Police spokesperson,”by” posting on instagram a photo of some “anti” police graffiti art (bust drawing of said spokes person with a supposed bullet hole in his forehead). Her release was dependant on her agreeing to stay at least 1 km away from the spokes person and or the police station until after her court date April 17. At least she’s getting a speedy trial before they lock this terrorist up (you don’t honestly think they are going to let a terrorist/criminal like her walk do you? why else the court date) Doesn't this all sound like busy work...you know the kind of work teenagers do when you come into a room an hour or so after asking them to clean up a bit and it looks the same and the "ager"  (moving really fast) looks like you just woke them up.

Now do you remember back a month or so the Fed announced new laws/rules to make citizens arrest easier.        Well that sounds all fine and good right?          ...you catch some guy in your garage ripping off your tools and you some how just lock him in there and call the cops... or you see some one grab/steal something and you grab them and hold them for the police right...no harm no foul you’d think right?
Wrong.......It sounded good though huh?
Well what it means is that now even a security guard can arrest and hold you (private police)....afraid yet...just wait a second....lets look at the simple rules law enforcement uses to detain you. You the citizen must be: in the process of committing, have just, or “might” in the future commit a crime. Ok how about now? That Tom cruise film where they arrest him for killing someone the day before...guess what that future is now. But....the national crime rate is actually on a downward trend and has been for a while. So to me the artist, that random guy just kinda observing everything..... it seems strange that Police would be all dressed up for the ball (in riot gear) with no one to arrest for anything unless perhaps a bunch of peaceful protesters...(?) I throw the ? in there because according to the media these"so called peaceful protesters" are thrown in with the likes of "the black block" (you know those guys dressed in black hoodies smashing stuff). If you watch some of the informative Docs on YouTube re the G20/8 summit a few years back ....well you'll see the bells of the ball are actually the police all 16000 of them. I really had trouble believing these were canadian police doing this.....It looked like some kinda "love in" interrupted by the police every once in a while plowing (really) into the crowd and dragging people out and stuffing them into vans and vanishing (not to mention the brutality of how they were dragged or plowed over)..

I'll shut up now and get back to work/art ..but really...         Are there no more substantial reasons and targets for the police to be worried about than "Peaceful Protesters". I can think of a few...and besides aren't protests something our elected MP's/MLA's are suppose to deal with..you know the voice of the people and all that... To me spending all that obvious $$$ on armoured personnel carriers and riot gear stuff is in support of "Make/Busy Work...You know the kind .
 When the police of canada get back to their real job I think in all fairness there will be alot of them in Ottawa, and I'm pretty sure they will all be very Busy and Occupied for some time..
                         Have you noticed "to Serve & Protect" isn't in production anymore.

Just sayin!
(this posts material inspired by the "Had a Right Dept" of Steven Harpers "Canadian Federal Government" paid for, "By You For You”!

Does the Canadian Government need an eNeMa? or is it a First Nations Copyright issue

     Yes, yes, I know this is suppose to be about art and it really is, this installment is about the art of crowd control all stealthy trench coat like and everything or maybe its just copyright issues.....

So Chief Spence has given up her funger strike and it would appear that anyone not a part of the conservative government in Canada (except +Terry Milewski,
   Terry gets Banok slapped by Bob  ) is ready to roll up their sleeves and get down to business and get these treaty's honored. I have a await and see attitude though based on what people are saying. In the last few weeks I have watched patiently to see some movement....in any direction but so far all I have seen is a whole lot of posing and talking, nothing different from the usual suspects.
               What bothers me the most, is that most if not all parties keep speaking the language of puppets when the camera turns to them (+Bob Ray was an exception...Thursday...good on you Bob!)  +Elder Raymond Robinson does a great job of explaining what the treaty's mean to him and his people (he was a funger/hunger striker too) So far I'd say Bob and Raymond are the exceptions in the last week or so ( if you didn't see it live you probably didn't see either of these clips  http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/01/25/robinson-doesnt-leave-quietly/

               As an artist I have always bounced to the tune of a different rubber band than most folks. But still I wonder where everyone is when I view the various different "Idle No More" round dances/marches/protests on tv. Maybe its the camera angle or maybe just its just subversion, I can't believe that many people watch Sun News. Are we Canadians really that asleep that we can't see what's really going on? Now I like to read (not sure about you yet) and in the last few months I have devoured many a book. Two recent (to me) books stand out in my mind at this time in history, Ayn Rands book "Atlas Shrugged" and a new one I just finished tonight - "SilEnt WeApons for qUite wArS" (author unknown)  Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars     A must read for anyone with a pulse.... as it sounds like a recipe for Nazi-ism anywhere anytime any place..it's truly frightening...Ever hear of Singularity well its the plan that Anon's the world over are trying to ultimately stop.

    . I'm just an artist but I'll tell you something terrible is up with bill c-11 & c-45. This SW4QW really seems/ed to be some kinda of method manual for subversion and subsequent control of the masses(insert ominous laugh here), it even suggests some of the little events (tests) we have seen in the last couple of weeks, months , years. example;  big expansion in the oil patch (new bigger airport too) but the prem of Alberta says on the news this past week there is going to be a shortage of oil (or something?????WTF). Could it be more look over here (misinformation) tactics... I mean why would china want a piece of a dying dirty industry????

     . Society was told Teslas was nuts and was perhaps even dangerous. Ya ok look around your house and think about that for a sec....you see that power pad your electronic device is sitting on, or the cordless tv? Well do you ever remember an "arms in the air like you just don't care" moment in the last few decades telling us about this great "new" EMF technology? I don't, and I think I would remember something like that. Seems to me that it is quite possible perhaps then that Tesla was right or at least more than on to something...around a hundred yrs ago!!!...I mean H3LL those guys came up with light bulbs (I'm going somewhere with this)

   . In 1919 a Japanese guy invents meth in a lab  History of Meth  Along comes WW2 and apparently the Japanese and Germans used it to keep awake and alert etc...not sure about drugs & the Allies but it would seem they used these techniques described in SW4QW this idea/manual. Its also not much of a stretch to draw a parallel to Germany's "final solution" for members of their society. I could describe a few allies  examples too but the Germany example is "generally" accepted true. Its all covered in this manual, "you know your soaking in it"

   From 1920-33 the US had a prohibition of alcohol...what did people do?   they drank even more...
In early 1900 society was beginning to blame their crime issues on the consumers of Opium, if you study addiction (imho) it shows that the laws about drug use are actually the reason for any/alot of subsequent crime and in actuality addicts can and have proven to have great value in society. So it again would seem  the short of it is that the laws that forbid drugs or dandelions are actually the root of the actual problem. China had a big problem with opium exporters and Canada wanted to help so they made drugs illegal making it that much more of lucrative business. The simple solution is a version of legal with no overhead thus removing as much potential to make it a money venture and thus effectively removing most of the criminal element... I would think the import export part of it at least. (anti-logic). Once you take the taboo out of it a bunch of people will get carried away and probably die but my guess is the numbers would level out relatively soon if you could have/grow it , use it but not sell it. I think  It would remove the availability of the drug by taking the big money out.  no money = no product,.. who works for free? You could perhaps do the same thing with booze (did I say that). Make, to much fun, to much work! logic I think or balance? (jmho) 1986 Ron & Nancy declare war on drugs..War on Drugs..look at Mexico now!

So November 2012 +Chief Spence of  +Attawapiskat fame goes on a funger strike in support of a group of 3 First Nations and one Anglo (I think) Canadian women known as +Idle No More. With the now added support Chief and then followed by a few more impassioned Chiefs the group soon swells to thousands and then sprouts side groups all in support of the need for the Canadian Government make good on some 200 plus year old deals. The PM says he won't meet with Chief Spence but she can talk to the minister in charge. She basically says nice try but if that's how you feel we will up the protest and wait til you change your mind. A week or so goes by and the PM changes his mind, and spends an after noon hanging with a few Chiefs that bit. They talk about all the great things they can talk about at their next meeting to be determined later where they will again talk about all the great things they are going to talk about later..sometime down the road.
In Canada there is a misconception that somehow tax payer's dollars goes to First Nations people and there it is just wasted      http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1240578--john-duncan-let-financing-for-attawapiskat-housing-fall-through-say-natives
So here we are in 2013 and this misconception is still being waved around like a dead cat. It has to be very apparent to all Canadians (unless they live under a rock) that the Federal Government of Canada (who now shamelessly has enlisted the media in a very blatant way) is up to something rather sinister. And you just know that something is wrong when protesters are gathered in the name of issues regarding public safety health and welfare and oddly enough that's the police's reasoning for removing protesters, kinda makes ya think hmmm.... I found the more I read SW4QW the more whats going on, here now, and around the world makes sense. We have agreed at some point to a police state with no rights. If you ask a cop their legal grounds for action against the protesters they usually say "Public Safety"they really can't answer what legal grounds they have to do anything to anybody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8IP6d1XZtw&feature=share
   let alone the protesters (police not really knowing to much is part of the plan which allows them to be more brutal and dumb thug like) show me an example of how its not like that and I'll show you many more that prove it is(ignorance is bliss if your a cop in Canada).  Silent Weapons for Silent Wars is the most profound 40 plus pages of literature I have ever read and it affects everyone everywhere except I suppose Iceland....I have only found one example of some kind of success against this populous control misinformation, resulting in consented slavery gone wrong.

Iceland saw a problem a few years back and with a bit of pain it would appear they are free-ish and some real bums went to jail (maybe not the biggest ones but enough to make the start of a big change.
http://crazyemailsandbackstories.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/icelands-amazing-peaceful-revolution-still-not-in-the-news-backstory/

I claim to know nothing about American politics but this vid sums up how alot of people in Iceland felt and those sentiments seem to be spreading in Canada and in the US. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds6Rmg9Uzf4&feature=share     Insert Canada in place of all American references and add "What if we just gutted our systems of Government and Banking from the ground up and fix it so it worked for all instead of the few!
But what do I know, I'm just an artist that thinks we are so screwed if we/all the people of Canada, don't do something rash and soon! What do you think? Don't just blindly believe what I'm saying...follow the links I posted read the info while its still accessible and don't forget to post an opinion (bill c-11 might allow the info to be blocked ie;copyright infringement etc..roflmao) Does the Canadian Government need an enema or is it just a First Nation's copyright issue?

Did Steven Harper really say" let them eat cake"

      The trouble with Canada is that back in the 70's we still had a glowing reputation (according to my recollection anyway).The world has had such a high opinion of us in the grand skeam of things I wonder what went wrong?
      A couple days ago I finished a book called "Atlas Shrugged" not sure whether it was suppose to melt my mind or expand it but one thing is for sure it really seemed to describe today on the planet. Now this book has some interesting idea's and it stops just short of where society is in this part of the world is. The elements in the book are not the same but the parralels are uncanny, even though it was written in 1957. Apparently Atlas Shrugged was quite popular and was thought of as Objectavist "propaganda" whatever that is. The book isn't really about John Galt but more about us. We used to think, produce, and make things. We still do sorta or at least some of us do but I'm getting off track.
     Here in Canada our government is in a tough situation with the potential for some serious trouble if they are not carefully respectful to and of, our indigenous peoples. Mr. Harper our prime minister all of a sudden (200plus years in the making)  has a problem in that the First Nations people made deals with our past leaders, and our leaders have purposely (in the near and far past) and perhaps even geocidally done their  best to screw glue and tattoo these indigenous people's into none existence. Let alone not honour their end of the deal, from the beginning. With the "Arab Spring" fun and games,jiggery pokery of gun law people (I gotta say in the US you can have virtually any kinda of gun known to man to protect yourself and carry it concealed in some cases, and yet some guy all dressed up and packing some pretty heavy fire power walks into a movie theater and whacks a bunch people and no one shoots back????? Locks are for honest people and armed guards in banks didn't stop bank robberies,nuf said). Ever hear of  "Idle No More"?
     This past holiday season Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat went on a hunger strike because she basically ask the Government for some more Gruel for her band and they told her to "let them eat cake" basically... (actually it was housing but the results were the same). Now a while back four women got together? and came up with "Idle No More" (First Nations people's answer to the term" Mad as hell and not gonna take it any more", I don't blame them when you look at the real issues) It would seem that these INM people were going around and teaching fellow FN people and anyone else that cared to listen about what the Canadian Government had in store for them long haul. The more people they spoke to the more people began to think "hey your right! my hind quarters do seem to feel a little raw" but still a good number of folks are still responding to government rape by yelling "Thank you sir may I have another" I don't think that will persist though, considering one day last year we had "thousands" of lakes, streams and rivers and as if by magic we had less than 800 and thats just the start. Oh ya and we just penned a deal with China so they could, en mass and have a go at us too. We'll see how that goes but I don't think it will be pretty....
     In a few hours Mr.Harper, his body guards, the Governor General (the Queens rep) and his body guards, Chief Spence, Shaun Atleo (Canadian Grand Chief), and all of, some of, or none of the other chiefs are going to meet,or not at all. It would seem from the governments position, to do some more discussing about what can be done about the deplorable living conditions First Nations people have to endure, or was it the general lack of ingredients to make "black bread". In all likely hood the First Nation's people in all shapes and forms are" Idle No More". Like me I'm sure they have spent alot of time (my guess is a few hundred years) sitting with a phone jammed in their ear waiting for the "department of Indian affairs "  to come back to the office from coffee and take them off hold so they can get on with business. But since they have been on hold again for a year they just figured they'd come down to the office and see how its possible for 6000 government employees to be at coffee all day for a year, every year.
      Mr. Harper and his gang of merry looters are going to make history in the next few hours, and when his term as Prime Minster is up, actually by the end of the day "he" will have decided whether he wants to be remembered as a "HERO" or a "LOOTING ZERO".  It doesn't matter who's responsible for making it what it is. you wanted the job. now you got it, make it work..... First Nations people (sorry to break that to ya) are the first "Turtle Islanders", you might know it as Canada, but they were there/here first or at least before us.....So lets do the right thing by them and maybe by accident we might get our seat back at the UN big boys table....we know, you know, how to behave like a big boy, and we know, you know, what "respect your elders" means and since that,s how you want to be treated, act respectable your making us look bad.

Castles dreams & Popsicle stick budgets

Mural pricing info and preventing hard situations.

 I received a call the other day from a past client wishing to get a quote for a new mural. Now under normal circumstances this would be good news. Only this time the client is a non-profit. A few years back I was approached by members of the “non profit “ board. At the time, I was new to town and felt that participating in a community endeavor was good for all concerned. As it turns out the board came to me “hat in hand” asking if I would consider “fixing” an existing mural pleading they had no budget. So we all met at the museum one night and discussed said mural in need of repair. Well it didn’t need to be repaired as it was done by some well intentioned amateurs about 20 odd years ago. I did the only thing I could do......replace it. Turns out they spent 5 k on a steel chest, not that it matters but imho they really have no need at this point in the game.

Now in the spirit of good will, I did the mural at cost under the inferred idea that they would do some fund raising on their own for the next one at par- “ish”.          Silly me, I should have known better!
 So this time three of us get together and the whole exchange lasted 5 minutes or less. After doing some measuring it turns out that the new piece they want is three times the size of the first one. So this time they insist I give them a straight out price for the mural which is strange from these guys (I don’t give out written quotes, just basic agreements signed by both parties when it’s money time). So I give them the straight up goods and that was it for the meeting. .......hmmm! Did I mention the mural I did helped win them an award, (as I was told this past summer by another board member) so they probably got a bursary of some sort too which is great, glad I could help.....but!!!!

Having done many meetings, there are a few things I have picked up....sometimes I’m wrong but not very often these days! This is what I think derailed the project:

Someone new (to the board with lots of plastic friends) knows an artist (that thinks they can paint murals, “some can”) and is pushing hard to send them work......so the meeting was loaded before I even turned up. Probably even before they called me.

Or

I’m bidding against......  a vinyl reproduction of a photograph! (which makes more sense in this equation).

A couple of things lead me to these conclusions:
 I could be wrong but I think not
first, I can paint what many can’t (that’s not say I can do anything but I have only had one complaint in almost 30 yrs), and there is no one I’m aware of any where near, that can match what I do in product or price.

What do I think I learned...hmmmm.
-If you do something for cheap/”the deal”, then expect to never ever earn more than that price point from that client no matter what they “say”.
- Never go out to quote on a job or ask for a quote unless you know what your asking for or doing exactly.
- Just because your friend is losing their house doesn’t mean they can paint murals at a professional level
- Some things just shouldn’t be done in vinyl, use the right medium for your venue (some things just look tacky no matter how "great" it looks on the screen)
- Don’t disrespect a mural artist by using vinyl all around a painted photo-real mural.....(unless its on a placard giving the artist credit and/or describing the mural its near! (it just looks tacky)
- Hire an artist/designer for artist designer work....it’s what they do! (yes I know you’re talented...but you may not or don’t have, the training!) The difference in the end results are “Huge”!  Product knowledge is a big help to achieve quality.
- If you are not confident enough to charge, (or prepared to pay if you’re a buyer) $35... give or take $10 - $20 either way, plus materials/rental equipment, per square foot for a mural then you should seriously practice/save your money until you are.
                                                  Murals are not for the faint at heart.
An additional thought, vinyl is not for museum displays, and museum displays are not a place to practice mural painting even though you can paint 20 x 30 inch canvases of cats, dogs or horses etc! (imho of course)

Totally Out There...Must be a Weasel "or" A Weasel dressed up as Gran Ma

And now for something totally out there

Not sure how to start this one so these be the facts!!

A neighbour of mine dropped off some _ _ _ _ _ at an art/_ _ _ _ _ store in town on consignment..( I also have some of my work in for sale in said store) About 4 months ago the store sold some of his _ _ _ _ _ _ and said they would pay him at the specified numbers of days down the road....No problem right? lol......

So today 4 months and a few hundred pounds of “BS” later, my neighbour drops by and asks me to help him pick up the rest of his consignment’s. So I said “ I take it they didn’t give you any more than excuses again today” he said “no they didn’t”......All right I guess we are going to pic up some art too while we at it!

Before I say any more about this I must give you some background...... there are few other artist in the surrounding area that have work in this store as well, so a few of us have been a little concerned that they might do a “runner” with our stuff and whatever monies are owed will just vanish with them! A few weeks back while in the store I noticed that a painting a friend had done was missing off the wall.....I contacted the friend to congratulate him on his fortune and was told he knew nothing of it.

 He dropped into the store about a week later (just a little visit to see how his art was moving etc....since he hadn’t been in, in a while.... lol) Long and short they said the painting had just sold the night before (lie) and that it was going to take  the usual amount of time to get paid out (45 days)......I must also say at this point (I heard today ) that they (the said store owners) are over a year behind in their retail rent at this point too. There is more but I’ll skip it as I think you get the idea! So anyway into the store I go and tactfully let the store owner know I’m coming with the neighbour to pick up his remaining consignment pieces and while I’m at it, my art as well...(based on the circumstances).....He responds with “Can you come back at 4” .....”Sure” I say “no problem”

At 4 we turn up.........With the neighbour's _ _ _ _ _ _ _ safely tucked into the truck I start the task of de-hanging my paintings and gathering up assorted prints and sculpture salted into the decor.... In the progression of gathering my stuff up I come to two large-ish prints (un-framed/rolled) that are layed out on two desk pull outs.....So as I’m inspecting the first print for damage (so I can sign off on the undamaged return of my work) the store owner comes up and grabs the other print (incorrectly) off the other sliding drawer and promptly puts a crease in an otherwise undamaged print and ask’s me what I'm doing......I turn to him and say........ ”I’m inspecting this print to make sure it has no creases in it like the one you just made!” “Looks like you just bought a print!”(Now the..... “totally out there” part)           He (the store owner) turns to me with the print still creasing in his hand and says “I didn’t do that !” (he quickly drops the print back on the drawer)....I respond with “ _ _ _ _ _, I just watched you do it ! “. “No I didn’t” he repeats.....”I’m not paying you for that little creese” and back and forth it goes.

Eventually he sorta takes responsibility for it and promises to pay me the wholesale price at some later point in time......”Hmmmm” I think to myself and then say “like you promised to pay _ _ _ _ _ _ for the _ _ _ _ _ _ you sold 4 months ago?” to which he starts to pedal............Now in the muddle of back and forth-ness in the discussion, he claims no understanding of how said crease could be considered damaged! (So I had to ask) If you have no understanding of what your actions have done, or even what your looking at/holding incorrectly how on earth did you ever think you were going to sell it and what made you think you could just pick it up anyway? he picks it up carefully this time and asks what it is and what makes it valuable....So then the art lesson begins (holy sheet!!!!!! and these guys have been in this biz for longer than I have, or so it is commonly thought!) and is ended with the question from me to him” didn’t you attend the archivist course last year for the museum volunteers so that they could handle similar materials properly?” He didn’t respond......oh by the way...while I was making sure all my paintings were in good shape I discovered a screw that "they" use for hanging paintings wedged into the back of one of my paintings between the canvas and the stretcher bars.........fortunately no hole or permanent damage! (I coulda screamed) No wonder they're bombing, careless disrespectful weasels!

So what to do?....we were friends....but to be told basically “ _ _ _ _ off !”  and “I didn’t see what I saw” for more than an hour what........ do ya do since silencing is a no no?
GBH? Perhaps, but that might be a bit much and not really “my style”. Beside I don't own a backhoe so digging a hole would be alota work. Can't say how I'm gonna handle this but I can say well maybe not.

 This little adventure has brought to mind a few from the very distant past......I think this is what learned though (again...grrr)  Here’s a potentially expensive education “heads up” if your a neub to the art biz.....

1. If the dealer looks like they are in trouble (they didn't) “they are!” Its way easier to get your stuff back than to try and sue someone who is penny-less. Also if your agreement seems kinda weird or none existent don't do it

2.Still don’t do business with friends lol...(cash only and no custom stuff)

3. Make sure you have and use a good clause for damage/losses/shrinkage and responsibility with dealer/gallery agreements.

4. Inspect everything before you deliver, get them to not only acknowledge receipt of artwork but also the condition and,....inspect everything thoroughly that you pick up before you sign off on receiving it back if applicable (it happens)

In the end I guess after spending most of my life in the art biz, I still have lots to learn & or remember!