Support your local artist

Re “Not a pretty picture,” Column One, Jan. 18

As a professional landscape artist, I have always been wary of giclees. Like all artists, I am always looking for a steady cash flow, but giclees give me a bad feeling. I think an artist’s goal is always to do something original, to be constantly improving, not to find a popular product and reproduce the heck out of it like the latest bestselling gimmick.

Machine-made prints are nothing more than a con game. The only prints of value are those handmade and pulled by the artist. A giclee is no more valuable than clipping a picture out of a magazine. I hate to see people waste money on prints. There is a ton of original artwork out there, much of it reasonably priced. There is no substitute for something truly original. Support an artist by buying an original work of art; don’t support middlemen by buying worthless reproductions.

KEN CHRISTENSEN

San Luis Obispo