Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.  Where we are praying for (and planning on) rain.

Besides that, about the title, and here we go.

I was at an art fair last weekend.  And I was eavesdropping.  Not intentionally, mind you, people were just talking loudly and it was hard to avoid.

 "Yeah, most of these people don't really make this"

 "We're so tired of seeing all this copy stuff"

 "Why do these people expect us to buy this stuff when it's all fake"

Yes.  Really.  Why?

And then I heard this, from a potential patron.  In my booth.  Talking to me:

 "I just bought a painting last year, made with that new kind of paint, you know, it has a french sounding name, kind of like gel".

And so I said:

"You don't mean giclee, do you?

Patron: 

Yeah!  That's it!

I tried not to break her heart, but I talked to her about digital copies and how they can be printed on canvas now.

She said:

 "Oh, no!  This one is real.  The artist signed it and everything.  It even has a certificate saying it's authentic, on the back.  I talked with her a long time about it.  It's a great painting.  She told me what a smart investment I was making, and how the value was definitely going to increase".

And I hear artists say they print giclees so their patrons can take home a "memento" of a painting they like but can't afford.

I suppose someone will tell me that this patron is a one-of-a-kind art dumbo.

Or that the art-fraud artist is a  (surely there's only one artist who would ever do something like that!) one-of-kind.

I'm dubious about both of those. 

Fortunately, there are still a few artists out there, who, when they talk about one-of-a-kind, mean real paint on real canvas.

And then the junior high crowd cruised by:  "Hey, lady, do you know where they sell the frozen hot chocolates?"

Sheesh.  Only at an art fair.

Later, Cooper