Recently, Sally Bright, from the NAIA, wrote us to tell us we had an importer on the list of exhibitors at Arts, Beats & Eats. Lisa and I (Lisa Konikow my co-director at ABE) were not pleased. We really liked the images and the exhibitor looked like a quality addition to the show lineup. But when we googled the name: misturadesigns.com and read more about the company AND the extensive list of art fairs they had participated in this year the handwriting was on the wall.
A recent email from www.thaitradepoint.com really brought this further to my attention.
I was being offered unique Asian crafts to sell to my customers. Here are some of the things I could buy (and possibly sell at an art fair):
- Ancient Beads -HANDMADE ART OF PRECIOUS AMULETIC ORNAMENT.
- Spare Robot - Amazing steel works from used spare parts.
- Wood Collection -Exotic wooden gifts for the wood passionate.
-Thai-Luna Soft Clay Flower
- Siam Sculture & Gift - Ancient Sculpture and Gift of the old Siam.
-Thai Be Proud - the masterpiece heritage of southern Thailand.
- Leaves Paper - Handmade leaves & fiber paper of Northern Thailand.
- Spaindex - Hot and Spicy Lady Clothings Exporter. (well, these may not make the jury :)
- Exotic Wallets - Authentic Genuine Leather Wallet made from great quality skin of Thai's animal.
- Wittaya Collection - Mango wood products from most skillful craftsman.
- Just-A-Crafts - The ultimate old rustic teak wook furniture.
The crafts are being sold in lots - not individually. Let's be sharp here and keep these vendors out of our art fairs. It completely undermines our reason for being.
It is an ancient art form; but the artist that was selling the embroidered paintings was not the original "embroiderer", which is what I and others have a problem with. The other problem with these embroidered paintings is that many of them are copied from another artist's original work - like the Terry Isaac painting above. The vendor in Bartlett had several such pieces in her booth. That is what I have a BIG problem with.
I was in China last year, Marti, and saw these artists at work. It is amazing work, but I do get it about the importing. The interesting thing is that they have templates and traditional images, e.g., a tiger, or birds, that get repeated (from 'scratch'!!) over and over. Those Chinese do know how to work hard!
Bartlett had an "artist" selling "embroidered paintings" - an ancient Chinese art form. What I observed, however, was the artist sitting behind the tent opening boxes of prepackaged art, removing the original backing and inserting new ones, then hanging them for sale. There are a lot of places online to purchase these - I found this one link quite interesting - this is an embroidered painting available - an embroidery "painting" of one of Terry Isaac's wildlife paintings. I doubt they had permission to use this image. http://www.suembroidery.com/products/view_details/embroidery_animal...
I've made a copy of this entry, Connie, and plan to distribute it to show promoters when I point out such booths. It is insidious these buy/sell vendors are underming the integrity of REAL art fairs.
Thank You, Connie and Lisa, for being on top of this-I have seen them at almost every art show this summer, and with a different person at the booth each time! There are several out there who are doing this and I tried to research one of them to try and prove they were importers, but just could not get the proof I needed to make a complaint.
I hope and pray that the promotors and in my case everyone else running shows get this information. One more thing in this economy that we do not need.
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