Attack the artists!

     So many artists suffered during their lives. Their stories are sad, so incredibly heart-wrenching they could make Hannibal Lecter weep. Van Gogh died penniless and by his own hand. Monet, the founder of Impressionism, lived most of his 86 years in poverty, and with a family to support. Mathew Brady, the great photojournalist who recorded the bloody horror of the Civil War battlefield, died a bankrupt alcoholic. William Blake, Edgar Allen Poe, Vermeer, Dylan Thomas, had they lived in another era, they would have been blues singers in the Mississippi Delta. So you could imagine why I’d be a little disturbed about The Starving Artists Sale coming to the Westchester Marriott in a couple of weeks. I mean, do they have to call it The Starving Artist’s Sale?

     It says, ‘Hey, everyone, now you can get 80% off a beautiful oil painting the size of a sofa and – AND! exploit some poor bastard! Don’t miss this opportunity. Their brushes are worn, their paints depleted, their spirit sunk and their strength exhausted, so ACT NOW!’

     Maybe they're thinking that if they can make us delight in feeling like a dumb predator they will sell lots of canvasses. All I know is, if the sale draws a big crowd, I sure hope no one gets trampled at the door, because, god knows, they’ll get kicked and plundered when they’re down.