The starving artist sale is back in Pittsburgh. What a joke! (Reading: buy, shop)

[raubre]

To me all the paintings look the same. Little villages or scenery. All very Bob Ross or Thomas Kincaide. Ho-hum

[robrobrob]

I really don't think it is a scam. Frankly, when you two or three of the same painting then you know it isn't real. That being said, their prices are dirt cheap compared with the real thing. I would argue that few people can afford real art.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Imagine being an artist and seeing those ads.

FAR Art :: View topic - Starving Artists Group, Inc. Sales Scam

Just for the sake of playing Devil's Advocate.... so what?

Why should the feelings of someone who paints a portrait be given special consideration that we don't give to other craftsmen?

We don't say "Imagine being a seamstress and having to see people wear clothes bought at Sears. All those Lands End shirts are exactly the same, oh the horror."

Or "Imagine being a jeweler and having to see some guy buy a wedding band that's exactly like the wedding band other men own."

Or "Imagine being a chef and having to see people going into a restaurant and eating lobster dinners that are mass produced." Most restaurants serve dishes where every ingredient is exactly the same every time that dish is made, and dinners are often created on an assembly line. Yet nobody thinks twice about ordering a lobster that's exactly like the dinner at a nearby table. Why is this?

The paintings at SA aren't my taste, but if someone else thinks a painting will look nice over their mantle who am I to chide them for something they enjoy in the privacy of their own home? They're buying something because it looks attractive to them, so why should I care? Also I think most people can see that several copies of the same painting are at the sale, so I don't think anyone's being fooled. So how is this a scam? Mass production isn't considered a scam in any other field.

[toosie]

The starving artist sales are for people whose priority when buying art is that it be "sofa sized"

[greg42]

It isn't the fact that it exists or even that people might like what they look like, it's the false advertising. Not sure how this outfit is able to continue to operate that way with obvious false claims, but perhaps the rules are not really that strong on these points.

Would people like these prints so much if these weren't misrepresented as "original oil paintings"?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Sadly I went to one and there are tons of yinzers looking for this scam art there.

Guess that makes you a yinzer since you went and looked too!

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by greg42

It isn't the fact that it exists or even that people might like what they look like, it's the false advertising. Not sure how this outfit is able to continue to operate that way with obvious false claims, but perhaps the rules are not really that strong on these points.

Would people like these prints so much if these weren't misrepresented as "original oil paintings"?

LOL well you make a good point here. I agree that they should just say "Oil paintings." They can't say copies or reproduction because copies are made with a lithograph and reproductions are based on famous painting. They aren't prints if they have oil paint applied by people, prints come from printing machines. But I agree that the word "original" can be misleading. I'll have to watch for this ad and see how misleading it is. I have to admit I'm not that familiar with it, so you may be right.

OTOH..... (still playing Devil's Advocate here ) people eat at the Original Pancake House and don't get mad that neither the pancake dishes nor the restaurant are originals.

[gg]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

I really don't think it is a scam. Frankly, when you two or three of the same painting then you know it isn't real. That being said, their prices are dirt cheap compared with the real thing. I would argue that few people can afford real art.

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?

[greg42]

I was looking for something online so I could see just how misleading it is, but I don't think the actual company has anything online. I think that's probably how they like it.

True, I shouldn't have said prints. I just read about the process of oleograph, which is a print on canvas and then a lacquer of some kind is applied over top that makes it look like brush. In fact this is a process used in poster shops and disclosed as such, apparently. But this is not what this Starving Artist outfit sells; what they sell is apparently typically made as h_curtis described at the beginning, assembly-line style in China where each worker stands there for 12 hours a day painting the same bit of painting over and over.

It's the sort of thing that appeals to lowest common denominator, like so many other shopping setups designed to appeal to, well, let's say the uninformed. A lot of these people might not care where or how it's made, but some might, if they bothered to find out. The paintings should all be stamped "Made in China"; that alone might awaken a few people.

[Caladium]

I dunno. There's a part of me that agrees, in theory, but OTOH when I look around my house, how much of my artwork was bought at art shows? Very little.

I own things that I've gotten at all sorts of places, some classier than others--flea markets, yard sales, etc. Some of them could have originally been Starving Artist paintings I suppose. (Although if they were I lucked out in getting ones that were fairly well done--my gripe against SA has nothing to do with mass production but with the quality. Yet every once in awhile places like that have a few that aren't so bad).

I enjoy going to the art shows and galleries, and seeing what they have.... but I don't buy at them very often. Just being honest. Can't afford most of the things they sell, and don't like a lot of it either.

Anyway to each his own... but since I've been enjoying playing Devil's Advocate today I might as well continue by bringing up my very favorite piece of art, my lions. They're the epitome of mass produced art but aren't they handsome? I think so.



You can see the casting marks if you look closely (plus there were others just like them for sale). I doubt they were made in this country. But, original or not they bring me joy (and isn't that the purpose of buying artwork?).

I suppose I could have hired an artist to come to my house and chisel lions out of marble but a) I don't have that sort of money and b) if I did I would spend it on something more useful than decorative lions. Or I'd give it to charity if I had that kind of money to burn.