Recently I began to look around me at everything we buy and use just in our daily lives. It is pretty discouraging to see the products that do not come from our country but foreign soil.
If you consider an artist work whether it be pastels, oils, pencils or watercolor (or sculpture) we all try to buy American and keep it as near to us as possible to continue to help the communities around us. Just try reading the "made in" labels in your purchases, then thank the artist you make your next purchase from for keeping it all at home.
My foundries are Berthoud (Madd Castings), Loveland (Art Castings), Denver (Josephs). I know the people that work in these foundries, they are friends that have to put bread on the table just like I do and that makes them personal in our relationship to achieve the end piece of work that I have produced in clay.
I am sure that I am not the only one that has been pursued by companies online to "just try us out" and see that our work is cheaper even though some have an email address that sounds like California if you keep checking it ends up being a foreign country.
We as artist should be proud that when we finish an item filled with all the inspiration, hope, talent (mixed in with a little fear) that it will not have a stamp on the bottom of it from a foreign country.
So if you are an artist, be proud of your work and consider a stamp on the bottom of your work to read, MADE IN THE USA.
Thanks for dropping in on my soapbox......
