4 ms·

Risking to be downvoted, what do SF artists (if you know any) think about this? I suspect if the founder had a background in art (as me) he would never launch

Risking to be downvoted, what do SF artists (if you know any) think about this? I suspect if the founder had a background in art (as me) he would never launch something like this. I would feel ashamed by exploiting already a struggling market (art) and yet being 'painted' as an hero. Despite believing in capitalism, limits should exist.

Kiro 10y ago
How is this exploitation? Just asking, I have no opinion.
- galfarragem 10y ago
  Art is a weak market that lives already of crumbs from society and this scheme vacuums most of them without adding any value to society in the long term. You could argue that Instapainting doesn't hurt relevant american artists once they live from a diferent market (patrons and benefactors), but by reducing the artists pool, the chances of having important ones reduces also. Why doesn't Instapainting hire american artists? A developed society needs a developed culture. Adopting European artists and scientists during early XX century helped US affirming themselves.
  - chairmanwow 10y ago
    So American artists (I'm assuming you mean creative people who paint things) want to be paid a lot of money to make something beautiful, and so art made by American artists is expensive and pushed even further to the fringes of society by the economics of it. Thus, it seems to be that people who are buy art are at the intersection of the set of people who can afford it (few) and those that appreciate it (a lot). This scheme as you so vehemently put it, is really aimed at getting more pretty things on people's walls. To do that, you need cheap and hopefully somewhat unique. Instapainting allows people to have both because they employ non-creative people who paint. I simply can't entertain the idea that the Chinese artists are being exploited by Instapainting by the very notion that they are being paid less than an artist would be in the US.
  - Kiro 10y ago
    > Why doesn't Instapainting hire american artists? Give me one argument why they should. You speak like it's an axiom but I don't see any reason to be a protectionist in this matter. Especially when the customer base is as global as it is (I'm a customer and I'm much closer to China than the US).
akanet 10y ago
What sort of ethical boundary do you perceive as being crossed? He appears to be providing work to Chinese painters looking for work. Do the painters self-identify as "artists"?
adventured 10y ago
I can't find a good argument in favor of SF artists somehow being more worthy of that income than Chinese artists. You could use the same premise to segment in any other arbitrary manner and eg claim that older struggling artists are more worthy of that income than younger newer artists, and so on. How is it anything but a strictly subjective argument that will inherently vary from person to person as to what criteria is most important? Fortunately what he's doing isn't exploiting, he's providing a valuable service in which the artists set their pricing and choose whether to accept the work. SF artists have no right to anything over an artist from an other city or country.
- galfarragem 10y ago
  Try to read your comment changing the word artist by developer. Is your opinion still so strong? And don't forget that IT is one of the most abundant markets not a perpetually struggling one.

Kiro 10y ago

How is this exploitation? Just asking, I have no opinion.

galfarragem 10y ago
Art is a weak market that lives already of crumbs from society and this scheme vacuums most of them without adding any value to society in the long term. You could argue that Instapainting doesn't hurt relevant american artists once they live from a diferent market (patrons and benefactors), but by reducing the artists pool, the chances of having important ones reduces also. Why doesn't Instapainting hire american artists? A developed society needs a developed culture. Adopting European artists and scientists during early XX century helped US affirming themselves.
- chairmanwow 10y ago
  So American artists (I'm assuming you mean creative people who paint things) want to be paid a lot of money to make something beautiful, and so art made by American artists is expensive and pushed even further to the fringes of society by the economics of it. Thus, it seems to be that people who are buy art are at the intersection of the set of people who can afford it (few) and those that appreciate it (a lot). This scheme as you so vehemently put it, is really aimed at getting more pretty things on people's walls. To do that, you need cheap and hopefully somewhat unique. Instapainting allows people to have both because they employ non-creative people who paint. I simply can't entertain the idea that the Chinese artists are being exploited by Instapainting by the very notion that they are being paid less than an artist would be in the US.
- Kiro 10y ago
  > Why doesn't Instapainting hire american artists? Give me one argument why they should. You speak like it's an axiom but I don't see any reason to be a protectionist in this matter. Especially when the customer base is as global as it is (I'm a customer and I'm much closer to China than the US).

akanet 10y ago

What sort of ethical boundary do you perceive as being crossed? He appears to be providing work to Chinese painters looking for work. Do the painters self-identify as "artists"?

adventured 10y ago

I can't find a good argument in favor of SF artists somehow being more worthy of that income than Chinese artists. You could use the same premise to segment in any other arbitrary manner and eg claim that older struggling artists are more worthy of that income than younger newer artists, and so on. How is it anything but a strictly subjective argument that will inherently vary from person to person as to what criteria is most important? Fortunately what he's doing isn't exploiting, he's providing a valuable service in which the artists set their pricing and choose whether to accept the work. SF artists have no right to anything over an artist from an other city or country.

galfarragem 10y ago
Try to read your comment changing the word artist by developer. Is your opinion still so strong? And don't forget that IT is one of the most abundant markets not a perpetually struggling one.