I got my first AI-generated art scam email

Every artist with an online presence eventually will get these scam emails with someone claiming they want to buy your art. I have had a website since 1998, and it did not take long until I had the first of these inquiries.  I have heard about countless “wife’s anniversary” gifts.  They typically are not far away, but far enough that the art needs to be shipped.  Let’s just say, Sacramento seems to be full of art lovers (actually it is, but you get the point).
Of course, the first time, you naively respond.  But the follow-up quickly turns to a need for weird check payments, etc. and you know it is a scam.

I no longer get these emails very often. I think the scammers know this won’t work.  Or do they?
Today, I got my first AI-generated art scam email (see below).   And I am naming fictitious Ayla Schmidt here, so if anyone searches for her name, this will come up.  It looks like there are a few real Ayla Schmidts out in the world but this “Art collector/lover” in the UK is nearly nonexistent online. But I did find “she” commented on another artist’s website with the exact same text used in the email I received.

Before there was email there was V Mail

Have you ever heard of a V Mailer?  80 years ago, they were a high-tech solution for the U.S. Military. The mailers helped manage and move a very high volume of mail sent to those serving overseas. The way the V Mailers worked is the original copy was reviewed by wartime censors and photographed — then a small negative was transported overseas to be printed at its destination. This enabled the U.S. Military to drastically reduce the weight of all the mail being sent to service members overseas.

 

I was not familiar with V Mail until a friend gave me an old box of unused mailers.  

Currently the anti-democratic regime is actively erasing and altering any parts of our nation’s history that do not fit their white supremacist narrative. Stories are disappearing from many different government websites. This inspired me to start commemorating those stories with a series of American Hero artist stamps.

During World War II, you were not allowed to add enclosures to a V Mailer.  The ones I mailed out this week each include a set of six artist stamps featuring the following Americans:

• Wong Kim Ark
• Private Albert Cashier
• Dr. Héctor P. García
• Corporal Terry Toyome Nakanishi
• Susie King Taylor
• Navajo Code Talkers

Sending mail art that preserves history is just one small act of resistance. One of the ways we can honor those who bravely fought against fascism 80 years ago is to stand up and speak out.

Bigger and Bigger!

The latest in my bookcase collage series, this one is 16”x20”.   I start by painting paper that is cut up to resemble the spines of books.  Mix in some craft paper for the “shelves” and add a few books using assorted bits of paper from my recycling bin.  All of it reassembled on painted wooden boards to create bookcase collages.

Colorful Books

 A new piece from the Bookcase Collage Series, this time with a white background.  

Mail Art inspired by an Orange Crush bottle

 

Responding to a mail art call with the theme Message in a Bottle here is the piece off to Germany with a story.

40 years ago, after a big winter storm, my mom and I found a deep bed of eel grass that had been pushed up out of Nantucket Sound onto the beach.  We found an old Orange Crush bottle. The painted label had worn away and we wondered if it had been floating in the Atlantic since the 1940s. The bottle spent decades on a kitchen windowsill on Cape Cod until it found its way to my home in San Francisco.
 
The bottle is a time traveler.  The bottle is the message.

Bookcase Collages

My bookcase collages are going to get bigger and bigger — the latest one is 16”x16”. Hours were spent painting paper, cutting paper and finally assembling the “bookcase.”

As I was gluing, I kept thinking about how my entire life has always had walls of books in the background. When I was 5 years old, we moved into a Victorian house with a large living room with built-in bookcases. They were 16 feet wide and all the way to the top of the 10-foot ceilings. At that point my parents did not own that many books, yet. My father even bought “filler” books like old encyclopedias at the Goodwill.  When we moved to a New England house with less space and lower ceilings, the filler books got left behind, but the TV room still had a full wall of books. My San Francisco apartment is filled with more than 1,000 books. I even worked in an office for many years where every time I looked up from my desk there was a wall of books.

I imagine looking at all these books for all these years might be part of the reason for my latest art obsession.  

I am not done yet…

New Art about Books

I have been exploring variations of book-themed art for many years, including my own Chaekgeori series.  My newest mixed media series is bookcase collages. I am mostly making my own collage material that begins with painting paper. I then mix in a bit of other paper sources before cutting it all up to resemble the spines of books.  Many different colors and sizes.  One by one they are added to the “shelves.” I started out with small work and now have finished a set of three that are 8”x8” each. I am planning on bigger pieces but with the same size books — I am open to commissions if you are interested in having your own bookcase collage.