The starving artist sale is back in Pittsburgh. What a joke! (Carnegie: home, to buy)

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

The scam part to me is they are advertising a bunch of "starving artists" getting together for a sale. Where do they say Chinese sweat shop?

So you're mad that the people who made them aren't starving? Would it seem like less of a scam if they prevented the workers who made them from eating?

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Caladium

So you're mad that the people who made them aren't starving? Would it seem like less of a scam if they prevented the workers who made them from eating?

Thank you.

[greg42]

Yeah I think the name is only a minor contribution to the problem.

[Velvet Jones]

Originally Posted by Caladium

So you're mad that the people who made them aren't starving? Would it seem like less of a scam if they prevented the workers who made them from eating?

BTW, anyone know how these paintings are made? Do they actually have some poor slave artists who sit there and paint hundreds of copies of some work? We bought one of these a few years ago, probably spent $50 for a 4x3 painting. It looks real, you can see the brush strokes. If it was machine made I'd be curious how they did it.

[creepsinc]

People should only buy real paintings painted by hand, one by one, by artists such as Thomas Kincaide.

[ditchdigger]

Would it seem like less of a scam if they prevented the workers who made them from eating?

How well fed are those Chinese anyway? Do we really know?

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Velvet Jones

BTW, anyone know how these paintings are made? Do they actually have some poor slave artists who sit there and paint hundreds of copies of some work? We bought one of these a few years ago, probably spent $50 for a 4x3 painting. It looks real, you can see the brush strokes. If it was machine made I'd be curious how they did it.

No it's not machine made most likely. It's apparently made in China like so many other things that are more easily and more cheaply made with cheap labor than with machines. From what I read the idea is an assembly line with a huge role of canvas. Each worker paints the same part of the painting over and over, and the canvas shifts forward down the line. Just like any other assembly line where one person does the same job over and over, except in this case the job is painting a portion of the canvas. Like any Chinese factory, the working conditions are likely anywhere from fair to poor.

[Hopes]

This article says a Dafen village in China produces 60% of the world's paintings. It's not showing an assembly line.

The first group of pictures is an example of artwork produced when the journalists asked the artists to paint themselves.

So it isn't like these artists don't have talent.

60% of World's Paintings Come from Dafen Village of China

There's a funky promo video at the bottom of the page.

Here's google images of Defan Village, aka Painting Village.

dafen china - Google Search

dafen china painters - Google Search

painters village china - Google Search

This is as close as it gets to an assembly line. One person painting multiple paintings at once.


Mona Lisas by the dozen at China's fake art village | Reuters

One dude painting entire painting over pale map:


Others paint without guidelines:


Not necessarily a production line. Don't be fooled, that's a painting of people painting below, not a photograph:


Reading articles, there's a little bit of every type of production in this little village and experts are saying that some real talent is emerging through certain artists' original works.

[Huckleberry3911948]

the sales end of art is notoriously scam.
most any senior citizen in my adult ed classes at the senior center, paints better than most of what i see in our little italy downtown private galleries.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Caladium

So you're mad that the people who made them aren't starving? Would it seem like less of a scam if they prevented the workers who made them from eating?

It is misleading. Goodness, how hard is it to understand! There is an assembly line for goodness sake! Each person paints a part of a painting and they pawn it off as some company in Texas makes a bunch of money on this import. You do know it is just an import business? Goodness, it is amazing how I can really even carry a conversation with anyone on this board. I truly have absolutely nothing in common with anyone here except wpipkins. He is one sharp dude.