the number one consumer and purchaser of printed marketing materials by the jehovah witnesses are the members.
steady cash flow is obtained from consistent and steady sales of printed materials and marketing fixtures to the members.
free labor further improves the margins and cash flow as no payroll taxes are paid due to preferred irs tax status.. .
Fact: you can't market truth, only goods and services.
A trade secret is patentable and protected by law.
What EXACTLY is the nature of the goods created and sold by the Watchtower Society?
I would compare it to an insurance policy which NEVER gets paid off to the beneficiaries!
That makes it--essentially--a FRAUD.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
Terry check out Michael Cartellone ( the skynyrd drummer) " 4 Davids"on you tube. There is a difference betwwen fraud and origional art.
__________________________________
Carellone has made it crystal clear what his intention was/is and that leaves nobody in doubt who painted what or why.
Here is an interesting philosophical question I would pose.
"What if he created four songs which duplicated (as closely as the painting) the work and style of 4 actual songwriters?"
Would the world of music be as generous and forgiving?
Would copying Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, and Billy Joel go down as 'original' and artistic? Or--would it simply
be seen as a gimmick and a cover-version?
_______________________
Did you know that in California, each time you sell an original piece of Art, a cut (percentage) of the sale price must go to the
ARTIST (original)? The legal theory is regarded as the same as an originator of a musical creation. THE ARTIST WHO ORIGINATES
is embodied within the INTRINSIC value itself.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
When you lead a person who wants to buy original art into buying mass produced art, you are on the threshold of fraud
unless you explain carefully exactly what it is they will own.
Where most people got ripped off by art was this way.
1. Being told the art "would appreciate" and become worth "more" the longer the buyer held on to it. This is not a claim
which any art dealer can make factually. This is easily provable. I had many a buyer ask me if we (the Art Gallery itself)
would buy back the art in the future. I explained why the answer was "no." I carefully described the phenomena this way:
"If anybody knew for certain this art would go up in value--why in the world would we let go of it in the first place?
We are in the RETAIL art business. The gamble is yours. We buy low and sell high. We don't buy after art becomes high."
2. Failure to explain definitively what ORIGINAL actually means.
A multiple image etching or litho pulled one at a time in an atelier is virtually hand-made duplicates of the image itself (contained in the
etching plate by scratches done by the artist--OR--on the litho stone drawn by crayon by the artist.) Each and every MULTIPLE is an original because---
the images don't BECOME ART until they transfer to paper, are examined and proofed by the artist and signed/numbered as an edition.
3. Failure to explain what LIMITED EDITION will mean for a PARTICULAR studio and a PARTICULAR run of art image.
Example: a Ltd Ed of 250 etchings which is truly LIMITED will result in that etching plate being SCRATCHED and DEFACED at the end of the edition so
no FURTHER images can be pulled. However . . . the artist may well ALSO photograph the etching and reproduce it as a photo-litho edition as well.
4. Just because a painting is painted does not gurantee ANY value whatsover. Value is imputed by the market. It can be ASSIGNED a virtual VALUE, but
that is merely an ASKING price. When art is INSURED, the replacement value is what is considered. This can be manipulated by an out-sized RETAIL price. The actual "value" is the materials (wood frame, canvas, stretcher bar, nails, liner, etc.)
5. Just because an artist dies it does NOT mean the VALUE of any purchased artwork by that artist GOES UP AUTOMATICALLY in VALUE.
_______________________________
When I worked at TRIANGLE INDUSTRIES Art company, we had artists who designed "original paintings."
The names of the artists were fabricated along with extensive and colorfully dramatic biographies. The company certified
with concocted "certificates of authenticity" purporting to guarentee the reality of the art, the artist and the limit. ALL OF IT WAS BOGUS!
When Norman Rockwell died--the market for his artwork CRASHED and BURNED. Why? All the collectors wanted to SELL! There were
no buyers---only sellers!
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
I was in Art over 40 years. From 1974 to 1992 I was in the Art BUSINESS.
The stories I could tell would make a book. (One few would read :)
I can only give my experience and opinion based on hobnobbing with the lah-dee-dahs in that world.
The art world is divided by buyers who know art intimately and knowledgably separated by an enormous gulf on the
other end by people who "Don't know anything about art, but who know what they like."
Most of the fraud is perpetrated on people who gleefully "don't know anything about art."
But--not entirely!
I met more frauds, crooks, flim-flam artists than genuine artists.
Many of those were ACTUAL artists!
The problem comes down to how easy it is for certain people to dupe others.
There is considerable money to be made (or ONCE WAS) from the "know-nothings"who are easy marks.
I knew of a reputable dealer who bought 250 pieces of blank, hand-made, acid-free etching paper from Salvador Dali's personal
rep with only Dali's SIGNATURE on them.
Why?
The dealer could get a talented atelier to run off lithos of Dali's earlier paintings . . . AS lithos and sell them as limited editions signed
by the Master himself!
Incidentally, the master artists use actual flat-stone litho and not printing press style dot-matrix lithographs.
____________________
I once answered an ad for this 'reputable dealer' who promised me a 15% commission if I could sell the "original" Dali lithos.
I asked if I could take a sample of the work with me for a few days before I accepted the job.
The dealer agreed.
I showed them to an actor (and Dali expert) Alan Rich.
Rich stared at the signatures for about ten seconds without blinking.
He immediately spat out the words, "Pathetic forgery!"
_______________________
As it turned out, Dali's art agent was the fraud having faked the signature after Dali (his client) had
gone entirely senile and reneged on paying money owed. This was his form of self-justice!
Ahhh the stories I could tell!
_________________________
I was working in an Art Gallery (Billy Hork Galleries) in Beverly Hills for awhile.
Celebrities came in often.
I sold a set of paintings (triptych) to Donald Sutherland who returned them a week later saying,
"The voices told me they aren't right." Do I know if he was shitin' me? No.
Jon Voigt and I had a long chat the day after he was a presenter on the Academy Awards.
Voigt is the same height as I am and, at the time, was pretty darned skinny in person. He was a very
affable and natural person without any pretenses.
I sold Ron Howard a miniature of a scrawny bird painted by an Amish painter. He and his wife were together.
I said something which made him laugh. His wife giggled.
John Travolta and Marilu Henner came in together one evening. Travolta was eating ice cream. He was followed by about
fifty people pretending they were NOT following him!
Yes--I kid you not. These were people acting too-cool-to-be-excited about movie stars, but who WERE excited enough
to be following them everywhere they went!
I asked Travolta if he and Marilu wanted to go out the back way.
He grinned and told me, "Nah--we're having fun with it."
for my staircase."
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
Wow, I found the Mother Lode here on Kinkaide:
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 10:39 
0
I recently saw this on the Huffpost. I have been active in the Los Gatos Patch discussing why the Kinkade estate would need a restraining order to protect the "Thomas Kinkade Studios' proprietary painting techniques". I smelled a skunk at the time and have always felt that Kinkade's work had that painting factory look to them.
HuffPost Arts
Our Favorite Reader Reactions To Thomas Kinkade's Life And Work
Posted: 05/11/2012 1:35 pm Updated: 05/11/2012 1:35 pm
Edward Goodwin: My mother-in-law was on a business trip to South Korea about 15 years ago, she was invited to join a group of Americans staying in the same hotel to visit the "Thomas Kinkade factory." That's what it is called. She knew who he was, of course. She went along thinking that it was a building he had been commissioned to decorate, or something of that nature. It wasn't. It is the factory that produces Thomas Kinkade art. Mr Kinkade would create a template very much like a paint-by numbers set. Each color or mixture of colors would have an alpha-numeric code to prevent translation mix-ups. These codes would be printed on the template. The template would be printed on specially treated canvas and would roll down an assembly line. Young ladies, hired for their ability to paint lightly, yet rapidly, would sit along the conveyor belt. One woman did only clouds, another, only bushes, another, only tree trunks, another, brightly lit windows, and so on until the finished painting reached the end of the conveyor belt. Mr Kinkade never met the young women who actually painted his paintings. They were paid $45.00 dollars a day for a 14 hour day for paintings that Mr Kinkade would sell for ten grand. Why were they worth that much? Because Mr Kinkade "painted" his signature on to them when they arrived in America. Nice work…if you can get it.
So Kinkade was selling painting done by others in an assembly line for over 15 years and as his own originals for over $10,000 each. I foresee a huge lawsuit against the Kinkade estate for misrepresentation of product and hopefully criminal charges against corporate members who knew what was going on.
It would appear that the Thomas Kincade factory is still painting after he is gone. You can buy original Kinkade paintings, without the $10,000 signature, below for as little as $5.
I cannot believe that the Kinkade Company would have allowed this to go on unless they were in fact using these very paintings to defraud customers and charge upwards of $10k for these copies. Otherwise they would have screamed bloody murder to protect "Thomas Kinkade Studios' proprietary painting techniques". Their silence in this matter says it all, GUILTY!!
More and more evidence is mounting to support the claims that Kinkade and his companies sold mass produced oil paintings made in South Korea and/or China and sold them as Kindake originals. This is criminal activity and all parties involved could face substantial prison time if brought to trial. It is clearly time for the California State Attorney General's Office to look into this massive art fraud perpetrated by Windermere Holdings LLC and Pacific Metro LLC, also known as The Thomas Kinkade Company.
_____________________________
a PHOTO of Kinkaide's alleged "Last Will"
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
It was either Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh, Kinkaide peed on. I can't remember exactly.
So, consider this a provisional "adjustment" or NEW LIGHT addendum to the above.
___________________________
(Edited to add: I did a Google Search and found this:
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/05/business/fi-kinkade5
"It's not just Kinkade's business practices that have been called into question. Former gallery owners, ex-employees and others say his personal behavior also belies the wholesome image on which he's built his empire.
In sworn testimony and interviews, they recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee's wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman's breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.
And then there is Kinkade's proclivity for "ritual territory marking," as he called it, which allegedly manifested itself in the late 1990s outside the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.
"This one's for you, Walt," the artist quipped late one night as he urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure, said Terry Sheppard, a former vice president for Kinkade's company, in an interview."
_______________________________________
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
What next? Did Thomas Kinkade not paint his stuff?
________________________________
Unfortunately, I can clue you in on that asshole, Thomas Kinkade.
He was a horrible person. He cheated on his wife. Left her and their four daughters to move in with his mistress.
Made his mistress sign a non-disclosure agreement (to not reveal he was a drunk and a cheat) and he drank himself to death. He was sued by a great many people who started out believing in
him and his art and ended up losing their life savings because of him--including his brother.
He briefly worked at Disney Studios and was fired for urinating on the famous hedge face of Mickey Mouse!
He was a phony born-again Christian who traded on his "Christianity"while cheating his franchise dealers right and left.
I know this because I spoke at length to his brother, Patrick, who opened a Thomas Kinkaide art gallery where I live now, in
Fort Worth, Texas. I also worked with and for one of the nicest people I've ever known who went bankrupt due to Kinkaide.
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/092006/09212006/220020
__________________________
The man was a marvel of bullshit!
He sold his collectors a . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . DNA DETECTION KIT.
Ask me why.
(Tell us why, Terry!)
Because, Kinkaide asserted (falsely) so many counterfeit paintings of his were circulating (not a single one ever was produced) he prayed
to God about how to stop it and . . . (wait for it) God told him to PUT A DROP OF HIS OWN BLOOD on every canvas!
If a collector wanted to be sure their own painting was "genuine" the $200 DNA testing kit would provide authentication!!
Yeah, right.
_____________________
He passed off cheap lithographs with gel coating (just a Margaret Keane had done in the 70's) to unsophisticated buyers as
original art canvases.
At first, he signed and #'d his prints and canvases until he got too bored AND REFUSED to do it any longer.
This is when he started his DNA blood detection scam.
_________________
Oh, I could go on and on . . .
But, I won't unless you ask for more.
_________________
Oh hell, JUST ONE MORE!
I saw him on TV on the HOME SHOPPING NETWORK.
He had a big introduction by the hostess and when the camera panned over to him, he started applauding--standing up and
saying, "Let's hear a big round of applause for JESUS CHRIST!"
Huh?
He was selling crappy little (9x12 "art canvas" versions (lithos with gel- coat brush strokes glued on canvas) as "limited editions" while, simultaneously
selling those same "limited" images as lunch boxes, T-shirts, thermos bottles, air fresheners, night lights, teddy bears, toys, pillows andLa-Z-Boyloungers, knick-knacks etc. In a brazen effort to raise money to pay off his lawsuit debts!
His girlfriend produced a hand-written paper in Kinkaide's writing which said:
"I, Thomas Kinkade, being of sound mind and body do hereby bequeath to Amy Pinto Walsh $10,000,000 in cash from my corporate policy and I give her the house at 16342 Ridgecrest Avenue for her security."
His wife and 4 daughters immediately challenged this in court.
Apparently, Valium and alcohol did the fellow in. His legacy immediately needed protecting so the court case became shrouded in
non-disclosure agreements. The "Christian painter-of-light" was only a valuable name brand if the name was kept free of shame and scandal.
Publicity announcements to remaining Kinkaide dealers assured them the legacy would continue . . .
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
I moved to Redondo Beach, California in 1974. At the local Kingdom Hall the big gossip eventually centered around a
"sister Keane" who was a "world-famous" painter.
Two of the sisters claimed to know her.
When they compared stories . . . the facts did not match.
Rumors came and went over the next couple of years. Some thought she was a delusional, scheming,
publicity-seeking person of shady morals.
Others vociferously disagreed and took measures to shut down the nay-sayers.
I was in the Art Business at the time, working for Triangle Industries in Los Angeles.
The owner of Triangle Industries was a wonderful larger-than-life character who fancied himself a
"Hungarian Godfather" shady art dealer who never met a broken law he didn't like.
(He eventually burned down his business for insurance money!)
According to Zolly (it's what everybody called him) Margaret Keane had approached him to publish and distribute
litho-copies of her painting bonded to canvas with gel-brush strokes laid on top to give the FALSE IMPRESSION
they were genuine paintings. These were simply paper printed on with ink. She could sell them as "original" and do a thousand copies!
Zolly was all for the scam.
I saw hundreds of these things because my department (NOVA ART) was required to mount the lithos
on the canvas and add the brush strokes! This idea was new at the time. Today, photographers apply the same
process to photos as a "matte finish".
I left the company in 1976 and became the Director of RnR Graphics in El Segundo.
The reputation of Margaret Keane in the Art Biz was that of a dishonest broker and a fraud.
That's all I know and hardly any of it "first hand."
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/26/art-fraud-margaret-walter-keane-tim-burton-biopic.
excerpt:.
"theres a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of napa, northern california.
______________________________
Excerpt from the above article
" T here’s a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of Napa, northern California. Inside, a family of devout Jehovah Witnesses bustles around, offering me a cheese plate. A Siamese cat weaves in and out of my legs. Everything is lovely. Sitting unobtrusively in the corner is 87-year-old Margaret Keane. “Would you like some macadamia nuts?” she asks. She hands me Jehovah Witness pamphlets too. “Jehovah looks after me every day,” she says. “I really feel it.”She is the last person you’d expect to be a participant in one of the great art frauds of the 20th century."
“He had me sitting in a corner,” she tells me, “and he was over there, talking, selling paintings, when somebody walked over to me and said: ‘Do you paint too?’ And I suddenly thought – just horrible shock – ‘Is he taking credit for my paintings?’”
He was. He had been telling his patrons a giant lie. Margaret was the painter of the big eyes – every one of them. Walter might well have seen sad children in postwar Berlin, but he hadn’t painted them, because he couldn’t paint to save his life."
_______________________
"what was the actual significance of that year, then?".
if jw's were overly zealous, what was the exact amount of zeal encouraged by the wts for a non-event which took up.
over 7 years of every jw's time?.
Damn those renegades! They're spoiling the good reputation of the rest!
