GET THE LEAD OUT:
Lead free paint is guaranteed on all of my paintings. Lead paint cracks, flakes, and turns to a powder after a few years and becomes a health and safety risk.
Many of the foreign copies, mass produced paintings, and paintings before 1978 contain high levels of lead. Don't let those bright colors dazzle you, new US paint formulas are just as bright and are lead free. I use the newest and best materials: paints that are safe (no lead or cadmium) and won't crack, flake, fade, or shift color, and are environmentally friendly.

WARNING: Do no purchase paintings from China unless you verify the artist. Dafen China is mass-producing millions of illegal copies of artwork as reported on the Denver Channel 4 News on May 17, 2010. Copyright registered works of Colorado artists have been pirated and sold in some galleries in Colorado. This greatly undermines the ability of local artists to produce their artwork. Also, most of these pirated copies contain inferior materials including dangerous levels of lead and asbestos!
60% of paint pigments fade, as Michael Wilcox points out. That is why some people cover their paintings in fear of exposure to bright light.
Do not cover my paintings.
Bright continuous room lighting will not harm my paintings because I use only paint pigments that are recommended by Michael Wilcox never to fade.

HOW TO RECOGNIZE ART:
Artistic Paintings contain a quality that I call Gemstone. A Gemstone in a painting is an area of the painting that can stand alone. For example, it can be cut out and placed into a ring setting or a bracelet or a broach as in Monet’s “Bodmer Oak” and “Waterlilies, Green Reflection”. In some cases, the entire painting is a gemstone. For example every area of Cezanne’s painting "Bridge Over the Marneat Creteil,1888” is striking, could be cut out and placed into a broach. I would call this a holographic gemstone.
A gemstone can be abstract. The works of Picasso may not reveal a tangible gemstone, but the overall compositions are gemstones, and cubism added to this gemstone quality. Also, Look at the works of Jackson Pollock or Andy Warhol and no one area seems to stand alone as a gemstone. Their originality, spontaneity, and boldness is the gemstone and this gemstone is revealed in their individual works.
Comparing an original work to a copy or a print is like comparing a natural diamond to cubic zirconia. The diamond is rare, unique, and is worth one hundred times more than zirconium. Also, a diamond will appreciate in value whereas zirconium will depreciate. Likewise, original oil paintings always appreciate in value whereas copies depreciate. The purchasing public can guide art by purchasing original oil paintings and by not purchasing copies.

©Copyright 1997.