Hello Art Lovers. I have an experience to share with you, an experience that might, hopefully, prevent other artists from going through the same ordeal I’ve gone through.
Although the vast majority of art dealers I’ve dealt with in the past have been professional and honest, sometimes an incident comes along that can propel an artist into total emotional frustration. That incident for me occurred one year ago, in the summer of 2007, when I was invited to have a solo art show at D Gallery in Oceanside California. Being a blind artist, the opportunity for people in San Diego County to see my art was invigorating. One of my goals has always been to show that blind people can create visual art. Although I have less than 5% vision left in one eye and only light perception remaining in my other, I can utilize that tiny bit of sight with the use of my memory. Relying on my memory is vital for I cannot see my paintings in their entirety either during or after their completion.
D Gallery was run by an art dealer named Gia Guidinger (I’ve since found out this is possibly an alias), the art show would run from August 1st 2007 – September 1st 2007, and we worked out a contract that contained all of the details one is supposed to have in a good contract. I made arrangements to fly from my home in Missouri to attend the show on opening night.
Opening night came and everyone in attendance had a great time. I responded to many questions regarding my art and the way I create it, and several people came up to me stating that they had just purchased certain works. I left for home feeling confident more sales would occur over the next four weeks.
Two weeks after returning home I was contacted by a friend in California, who told me that D Gallery was closed and all of my paintings were missing. I immediately phoned Ms. Guidinger and demanded that my art be returned to me or I would be contacting the local police. She assured me that my art was fine and claimed that the show lost money and she had to close down the gallery. When I inquired (several times over the next few weeks) as to how many of my paintings had sold, I received various answers along with excuses about misplacing her paper work. Little by little she shipped my paintings back to me, and when Ms. Guidinger said I’d received them all, I was15 paintings short. It was already past the date in the contract I was to be paid by, but she promised to send my percentage soon.
Several months passed and no payment came. Emails from her were vague, sometimes offering excuses and promises, other times they were abusive, and occasionally they were bizarre. I’d had enough of this fiasco and decided to take her to court.
She had breached the contract, and California civil service code 1738.6 states that an art dealer is required to pay the artist their share of the profits prior to the dealer paying himself/herself or spending any of the proceeds. I filed papers with San Diego County court, but found it impossible to have these documents served to Guidinger, for she had disappeared.
In January 2008 I placed a theft notice on my website with photos of the 15 paintings and a photo of Ms.Guidinger and myself. A couple of months later I received an email from her threatening to take legal action against me unless I removed her photo from my website. I wanted to shout, “please do it, take me to court, I’d love to see you in court!” Instead, she offered to pay me what she owed if I agreed to remove the theft notice. I was thoroughly familiar with her tactics by now and never for a moment believed she would actually pay me, but I wanted to say that I gave her every chance. So, I removed it, she didn’t pay, and the theft notice is now back on my website. I’ve also discovered that I’m not the first artist to have this experience with her, but as far as I know, I’m the only one speaking out about it.
It’s now been one year since the art show, I still haven’t been paid one penny, and the whereabouts of most of my 15 paintings is still a mystery. However, several weeks ago I received an interesting special delivery letter. It was from a Judge Mathis, and upon opening the letter I found out he’s a judge on TV. They search through court records around the country, came across my case in the files at San Diego Courthouse, and asked if I would agree to have my case on TV. I agreed, but they either couldn’t find Ms. Guidinger or couldn’t get her to agree to appear on Judge Mathis. A few days ago I received another special delivery letter. Now Cristina’s Court wants my case on their show. I await the results of their efforts to find her/convince her… I’m not holding my breath.
If anyone would like to see a photo of this “art dealer to avoid”, the link is http://www.davidkontra.com/notice_of_art_theft.htm .
