OMG…in the middle of this wall street fallout….the recent auction at Sotheby's of Damien Hirst's newest collection blows me away! I guess Damien represents a light at the end of a tunnel. He's 45 years old and it's amazing for an artist like me to watch another successful living artist breaking sales records at auction. His work is not my cup of tea, but he's like Madonna…he KNOWS how to market himself. Other living contemporaries of mine like Jeff Koons and Romero Britto can't help but be in awe of Damien's success. Now he's doing spin art…it's like a less sophisticated version of the art we all used to do at local carnivals…where the canvas spins and you drop paint on it while it's spinning and you get this cool kaleidoscope effect. It's brilliant and it's selling for millions. Wall Street hasn't come close to performing as well as his paintings have. If an artist can become famous for preserving dead animals in formaldehyde and command millions at auction, it proves there really is no end in sight. I'd also like to give all art dealers and galleries something else to consider regarding Damien's new strategy of selling direct to collectors. With the internet and auction houses and artists working directly with collectors, where is that going to leave the rest of the industry?
–Charles
