Replicas of Ancient Coins

Falsificacion de monedas
by Lobocapo

Replicas of ancient coins being produced in the traditional manner.

Diana Cooper’s New Installation!!!! :)

click the image to see more photos!!

Response to Anti-Ancient Coin Collecting Article on Archaeologist Nathan Elkins Website

As you may know, I have a humble collection of ancient coins. I follow a bunch of online message groups regarding ancient coin collecting, and recently a debate has emerged between several forceful archaeologists, Nathan Elkins and Paul Barford, and the ancient coin collecting community.

Archeologists are contending that the market created by ancient coin collectors is leading to widespread looting of archaeological dig sites in the Balkans and in particular Bulgaria (which is directly north of Greece).

Collectors want ethical ways to collect coins.

I think these two positions compliment each other rather than oppose each other. However the above mentioned archaeologists have been very forceful in their arguments that seem to suggest that no private person should own a coin over 100 years old that does not carry a provenance (which the United Nations will accept under the 1970 UNESCO agreement).

I wrote a long response to an article about a German (Hessian) police officer who has started to confiscate coin collections that have coins which can be sourced to people accused of looting. The German police are apparently working backwards through eBay to find all the buyers and the sources of the potentially looted materials.

Here is a link to the article: click here.

Here is my (second) response:

Hi Nathan,

Man, I feel like you and I are both very interested in ancient history, but I feel threatened. I sense you feel threatened too. We are both young professionals (I am an art professor in NYC), and maybe we can fight about this for years and years! Or maybe our communities can find a way to compromise.

You are a very interesting writer, and I think your use of facts/numbers makes your arguments compelling. However: I enjoy collecting ancient coins, and I can not place a number on it, and as per your article: A Survey of the Material and Intellectual Consequences of Trading in Undocumented Ancient Coins, my connection with ancient coins is at heart Romantic: I like where ancient coins allow my imagination to run to, I like the connection I feel with history, I like not feeling alienated from the grand narrative of history. I love the imagery and learning from the text (especially Latin). Ancient coins make me feel more at home in the world. My passionate interest makes me unsympathetic to your arguments about looted sites, because I feel as though you would prefer for me to not be able to own ancient coins – that’s a truthful summary of my position.

I don’t have a problem with archaeologists gaining the context of the location of a coin and then studying it. However I think coins that are not necessary, appear in a large number at a dig, or are superfluous for whatever reason should be released to the open market.

Also, as you have noted, most coins are not found by archaeologists they are found by amateurs.

If you were able to convince me that you would help support a market for ancient coins through a program where archaeologists released coins that weren’t critical to their study/research, and would pay a market price to finders of coins – I think you would instantly have the support of most collectors.

Police confiscating coin collections and potentially raiding homes is a very threatening prospect for the sedentary, thoughtful and academic people who collect coins. The alarm you are sensing is real, people feel inflamed! But I think the silly use of words like Nazi hurts their arguments, and is painfully one sided and embarrassingly obtuse. Both sides need to come together to meet in the middle on this one.

Also, your article is the only place where I have seen such a concise written analysis of the points coin collectors use to defend their hobby. I made some crib notes

Honestly – if you want an American expression “Money Talks and Bull S. walks.” That is why collectors will keep collecting, and you won’t be able to stop us. Capitalism is against you here. Archaeologists should be looking out for a way to compromise that allows ancient coin collectors to still be able to build collections. Your suggestion that perhaps coin enthusiasts could be invited to digs is great, but unfortunately unlikely to work with the North American collectors, because it would be prohibitively expensive to fly to Europe and Middle East.

What collectors do want is to collect ethically and fairly with regard to the international community and culture at large. Collectors would love to be able to use archaeologists as a resource, and I think we would be one of your biggest customers, and probably the only civilians willing to read your academic work. What needs to happen is the creation of a system where archaeologists become involved at the source, but then allow the release of coins which are insignificant to their research to the market. The level of significance would have to be standardized according to something reasonable. UNESCO documents would have to created and put into use.

Archaeologists could probably make money if they issued coins out with their locations, depths into the soil, relation to other objects in the dig, and some text about the significance of the site itself. This may win more collectors over to your side than cheering on police who are treading a thin line between law and vigilantism.

As you pointed out in your article, people have been collecting coins for thousands of years. It would be fruitless and a waste of your and the archaeological communities effort to even try to get us to stop, only a compromise that allows us to continue collecting ethically makes any sense.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my earlier comment,

Bill

Why?

This one is for Wadrick at GritFx, and Burks from Kandahar. Burks and I used to imitate Agent Smith before we went on missions in Afghanistan, Why Mr. Anderson?!

Stu-Stu-Studio Oh Ohhh! – Bill Donovan’s Studio and New Work

Me, Bill Donovan – Feb 2009

The Dogs (we call them the Digs), Elmer and Abigail

Studio Corner

Ectoplasm – Owls & Stalin

Coyote

Participant, Painting in Progress

A small part (which I like) of a larger unsucessful drawing

Brief Report from Indy

The Murray Building, where Big Car is located. It’s like the spawn of the Hall Mall and a Berlin punk rock squat inside, with studios, galleries, bad graffiti and murals…

I was in Indianapolis, Indiana, “The Crossroads of America,” over the weekend installing a show in collaboration with some Moving Crew people and some other Iowa City artists. I will post on the show more later, but for now, here are some images from a show at the Herron College of Art and Design, images from Jason Hackenwerth. Danielle Rante (an Iowa printmaking grad who teaches at Herron) said that in his artist lecture, somebody asked him where he got the idea to use balloons as a medium, and he responded, “My mother is a clown.” They thought he was joking, but he’s not.

Interior view of one of the Cochleapods.

Nice shadows on the wall.

And, I do not know the story with this truck (mobile dental clinic, art project, unauthorized graffiti?), but it struck me as quite delightful in all its red glory in the snow. It says “DR DENNIS OLSEN, DDS, SUITE 227, WELCOME” in vinyl letters next to the door.

John Malloy – "One Out Of A Hundred"

Altered Taste, 15″ x 24″, oil, pen & ink,and digital media.

John in his studio

Weight Loss, 15″ x 24″, oil, pen & ink,and digital media.

Here’s some information about the show:

Art Whino Announces:

One Out Of A Hundred

The Art of John Malloy

“One Out of a Hundred” centers around John Malloy’s personal series ofmixed-media works that explore drug side effects as a metaphor forconsumer and media-driven culture’s long-term effects on the humanspirit. The originals for each piece include pen & ink, oil paint, andother media, and will be exhibited along with large-format, limited edition signed prints of the series. Limited edition prints of Malloy’s comics “Queasy” [Image Comics], “Channel One”, and rock-interview comics for the award-winning Lemon Magazine will also be on display, in addition to illustrations for the band Minus The Bear, I Heart Comix, and other magazines and publications.
Born in rural northern Pennsylvania to a cemetery caretaker and a coal-miner’s daughter, John Malloy began drawing at very young age. He later earned a background in painting with one of the world’s most eminent trompe l’oeil artists, and has since been self taught in fineart, illustration, comics, and design.

His first graphic novel, “Amnesia” [2001] combined pen & ink, painted,and digital media, He is presently working on two new graphic novels, as well as an autobiographical comic for Image Comics’ PopGunAnthology titled, “Queasy”.

His illustrations and comics have been featured in a variety ofpublications, and he is now at work on an ongoing personal fine artseries – “One Out of a Hundred” that explores the side effects of medication as a metaphor for the long-term effects of consumer cultureon the human spirit.

I liked the way John approached me, not that I am a big deal, but it was nice that he explained himself and was polite:

Hi Bill,

I’m a fine artist and illustrator and fan of Ink Stained Hands. I’m writing to submit news of my first big solo exhibit your way. “One Outof A Hundred” opens at Art Whino Gallery, Saturday Feb. 21:http://johnmalloy.net/html/artwhino1100.html

-just 20 minutes from Washington D.C.-

Over 40 Limited Edition Prints and over 50 Works of Original Art,including illustration, fine art, and comics will be on display and for sale.

Thanks kindly.
Cheers!

-John

–John MalloyIllustration.FineArt.Comics.Designhttp://www.johnmalloy.net

Children’s Drawings from Darfur

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Children’s Drawings from Darfur, originally uploaded by INGRIDNETWORK.

more here

This is so sad.

But these kids can draw!

FAD – Art Fast News

FAD is a London based art website covering contemporary
art news, street art, video, design, etc. We cover new
openings,art fairs from around the world and have extensive
interviews with artists themselves. As well as news from the
London scene we cover Berlin,Paris,New York and even the
Asian market. It’s an eclectic mix of cool happening art stuff.
FAD caters to high net worth art patrons who enjoy the social
aspect of the art world as well as the beauty of art for
art’s sake. FAD combines fast art news – an instant diary of
tonight’s art happenings – with insightful and opinionated
articles on the international art scene.
Art lovers are well served by the internet, but those looking for
more cutting-edge shows around Europe should head to FADwebsite.
(The Times online)

FAD and Ink Stained Hands have a partenership going where, when I put together a good interview, FAD will post the interview. Click here to visit their homepage. The website is designed very nicely.

Also I answered FAD’s questions. FAD’s questions are a series of short questions in a interview format that are given out to various artists. The questions stay the same in each interview, and at some point will allow for cross referencing different artists’ answers to the same questions.

Vantage Art Press

I have word from someone I respect that the people behind Vantage Art Press are good people, click here for the main website, and click here for the blog.