Enough of that VD...

No, I don't mean the STD variety. I mean a certain individual who's initials are VD (supposedly in Iraq, of all places) who tried to get me involved in some sort of gem-smuggling scam (maybe money laundering as well) as well as get one of my limited edition pieces. I ended up shredding both of the $2,500-over-my-asking-price checks she overnighted. I've saved all the evidence - it got to be so weird - many names involved, many people calling me, things just got weirder and weirder. No one can say my life is dull!

I guess what I've gotten out of this is I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I just kept smelling fish, so I hung in there and sure enough, it was a scam. I'm now in the process of setting up paypal on everything, so if anyone wants to purchase they just do it through paypal, and that's that! The life of the "online artist"...sure I'm not the only one. Then, of course, there's the ongoing struggle of the "orphan acts" which means pretty much anyone could download and use your work with no penalty (i.e. steal). My policy has always been pretty liberal - I know people can download my image if they want. But I was really surprised to learn from a certain person in the art world I deal with that he himself "steals" works from well-known artists and doesn't care if they don't have a signature or are "originals" or "limited edition prints". "I have the work, don't I?" he said. WOW. To make it worse, he himself is an artist.

I had a fun day yesterday, talking with a fellow artist who gave me a book on using alternative archival materials in the printing process. He saw my extremely messy apartment and pronounced "you really ARE just like me!" I know it's worse than usual now, but I've been so busy with other things (more important!) Here's the pics to prove it...(coming up shortly!)