'Bad' art finds good homes
We just assumed that The Nation's editorial cartoonist Stephff was flawless (a few letters to the editor notwithstanding). But apparently he does botch some drawings. And yet people still want to own them!
Stephff – real name Stephane Peray – was dumbfounded that people wanted his throwaway art. But many folks are delighted to scoop up the drawings where he’s made an irreversible mistake in ink on glossy paper. These pieces can’t be corrected with White-out, so he would normally just chuck them in the bin.
“Then one day a security guard at my building asked if he could have one,” Stephff tells Soopsip. “I told him it was messed up, but he wanted it anyway. So I fixed it up a bit and I was surprised at the result!”
It turned out that a little fixing-up could turn these cast-offs into collectible art after all. Visitors to the Stephff Tribal Art Gallery in Yen-arkard asked about it too. “I told them it’s not for sale because it’s wrecked, but they still wanted it, so I gave it to them.” Stephff found that he thoroughly enjoyed giving art away – it made perfect anarchic sense in this crazy commercial world. “Why not?” he thought. If he lacks the talent to become the most famous artist on earth, he could be one of the most generous ones instead!
So now he has “500 Free Graffiti” on his Facebook page, at least one artwork handed out every day, first-come-first-served. The only strings attached are that you have to pick up the piece in person and you can only “win” once. “It’s hard work, but it’s quite fun,” Stephff says. “When I see people so happy, it gives me more energy to continue.”
It’s not bad publicity, either. Recent winner Kiwizz Wutti spread the word further on Facebook: “I won this awesome piece of graffiti art. Ya! He is so generous.”
Make Stephff your Facebook friend now – there are still 487 artworks to give away on the “stephff.tribalart” page.
