Starving Artist - Part Five by Dave Jaffe

         Starving Artist - Part Five



     So far this story of poor artists has been a predictable one. It's message is very simple and sad: Most visual artists don't make much money, the message goes, and never will. Yet there are exceptions to this rule. One of them is the American visual artist named James Stephen George Boggs or 'Boggs' as he's known in the art world. Boggs makes money simply by drawing excellent copies of U.S. dollars.
     Boggs, as James Weschler points out in his book on Boggs,  makes money by drawing it. He has drawn one side of many U.S. dollar bills. Then Boggs tries to buy a meal or something else with his fake dollar bill.
    Sometimes at the beginning of his career, waiters, food servers, salespeople and others would say in effect, "Sorry. I can't accept this. You'll have to pay me real money."  Yet as Weschler goes on to say in his book on Boggs, called 'Boggs: A Comedy of Values' in the end Boggs made lots of money and became famous in several countries.
     And to-day, his U.S. dollar bills sell for thousands and thousands of dollars. Of course Boggs's road to fame and fortune did hit a few bumps along the way.
     In Great Britain where he drew a one-sided version of the British pound he was charged in the 1980's by the Bank of England for counterfeiting the British pound. After a juried trial in the famous Old Bailey court house, Boggs was pronounced 'Not guilty' and he was free, well sort of.
     Once back in the United States Secret Service agents raided his home. They seized piles of his art work and other things like the receipts he bought from art work sales. For Boggs keeps the receipts and other things like change he gets from buying things for his art work. Often he sells receipts, change and one of his bills as a complete work of art . The Secret Service people kept Boggs's works and materials but never charged him with anything.
    "But isn't this man a counterfeiter?" someone asked me when I told her about Boggs. "He's breaking the law."
    This of course was or is the reason that police and others have tried to stop Boggs from making art. Yet so far the law has failed to deter him from making his art. Boggs now uses a computer to do his work and no longer draws his work with a pen. Yet the police are still interested in him.
     In 2006 he was charged in Florida with having amphetamines, drug equipment and a concealed weapon in his possession. Yet he's still churning out versions of his currency. He's an artist who makes money by drawing money. In the art world that's a success story And Boggs isn't the first artist who drew a country's currency.
    We'll look at some of these artists in the next chapter.