----- Original Message ----
> From: OrionWorks - Steven V Johnson <svj.orionwo...@gmail.com>
> To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
> Sent: Mon, October 18, 2010 11:49:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [Vo]:OT: Will physical books be gone in 5 years
> To clarify, what I mean about the "dark side" of Kinkade's, business
> model: The technique revolves around the procedure of generating
> reproductions (prints) produced from his original paintings and then
> employing a stable of artisans to manually "touch up" each of the
> prints with little dabs of red and blue pigment applied to the rose
> bushes growing alongside his cute 19th century cottages. The "crime"
> revolves around the fact that Kinkade business model can then legally
> claim the fact that all the reproductions are original works of art,
> because "artisans" have manually "touched up" each print.
> Incidentally, employing a stable of artisans is not a new concept. In
> the past many of the great masters employed artisans to perform all
> the boring work. The difference was that these artisans were employed
> by their master to work on the master's original painting, not
> thousands of reproductions!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst
Damien Hirst employs artisans but only for the generation of original works,
and
is probably the richest artist ever.
"Hirst sees the real creative act as being the conception, not the execution,
and that, as the progenitor of the idea, he is therefore the artist:
Art goes on in your head," he says. "If you said something interesting, that
might be a title for a work of art and I'd write it down. Art comes from
everywhere. It's your response to your surroundings. There are on-going ideas
I've been working out for years, like how to make a rainbow in a gallery. I've
always got a massive list of titles, of ideas for shows, and of works without
titles.[17]"Harry