The Art of Thievery in New York

I have seen the 'artists' on the streets of New York drawing caricatures, from Times Square to Central Park. Sometimes you'll find a genuine artists with honest samples up, but most of these caricaturists seem to have no integrity and give us all a bad image.

Most individuals don't know the difference between (or have ever heard of) Sebastian Kruger or Tom Richmond... but we know.

Tom has mentioned this on his blog before (I've seen his work out there), and it's nothing to call your lawyer over, as it will surely effect nothing. But it really is a fun, when taking a day off in the city, to spot your own artwork, as well as your friends'.

While shopping near Rockefeller Center, I had a fun encounter. I first spotted a caricature by my friend, and former house-mate Glenn Ferguson, depicting master caricaturist Kage Nakanishi. This made me laugh, as no one on the streets will recognize Kage, a Japanese businessman and artist, so there is no logic behind it other than laziness and lack of respect or honesty. It made me laugh out loud, so I ran across the street, where my girlfriend took this photograph:

In it, you an see the tracings from the work of Chris Wahl, Thomas Fluharty, Glenn Ferguson and others!

This made me smile and give the guy a hard time:

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"Those are nice caricatures."

"Five dollars - you want one?"

"No, my friends already drew all of these. Where is your work? This isn't your art."

"..." (he ignored me of course, playing with his phone as though he didn't hear me, no longer interested in my money for some reason)

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And then to my enjoyment (a block later) we found yet another thief already drawing a nice couple. They look confused when I posed for this picture, pointing at my very own painting of Freddy Mercury, so I told them it was mine:

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"Yeah, I painted that one." (pointing at the image while the artist acted like he didn't hear me)

"Really? What do you mean?" the woman asked.

"Oh, none of these are his images. He stole them from the internet. That one's on my website."

"huh..." (slight confusion and disbelief)

"I'm not joking," I finished, with a confident voice and smile, "but have a good day."

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I don't mean to ruin their experience, but I felt they could handle the truth. They looked mildly entertained while being swindled.

I did bump into a Russian artist who laughed when I pointed out the dishonesty of the first artist. He was set up with all original art, right next to him and his reaction revealed that he agreed with my statement. He walked over to talk to me for a minute or two, and it was refreshing to hear someone be very honest and realistic; he came to the United States as a teenager and went to school for graphic design. Because he is so comfortable with the computer and imaging programs, a lot of his work had photographic elements and distortion, yet he was the first to point this out to me... how he needs to overcome this and he likes to practice. What an amazing juxtaposition within those 10 feet of New York sidewalk. It made me quite happy to meet him, after seeing implied plagiarism just seconds before.

Anyway... if you go to New York and get a caricature, find the artist that will talk to you before selling you a half-hearted sketch, because that's the one that matters. This isn't the last time I'll see my colleagues' work on the street... and it's sort of fun. While it doesn't matter to 90% of their customers (and it shouldn't), it's something that the artists have the right to point out. It's humanity at its best.

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