My First Business Experience.

At 16, when you’re still bright eyed, getting your paintings into a shop or a gallery is really a big deal. Especially when your work is side-by-side with Catherine Christie’s which start at about R90,000. I had done these pixelated paintings based on Warhol’s Marilyn series. The first one I did, was for an art project which when I took to school everyone absolutely loved, after getting that feedback I decided to paint 4 more to sell as a set. I worked out after that each painting took 24 hours to paint, it really is a painful procedure doing a painting block by block..

Once they were done I was sure everyone would be as excited about them as I was, I took a CD of the images into the Lisa King Gallery, Bell Roberts and a few others but I got no response. I then tried Casa Interiors, they were in Sir Lowry Road and sold really amazing high end couches and furniture, I sent them an email which they responded to almost immediately saying they would love to see them, and please could I bring them in. I took them and they really loved them so I signed a consignment note which stated they owed me R2000 per painting when sold. At that age R8000 for four paintings really is a lot of money, and there I was spending the money in my head before I’d even sold any, but at that age you’re also naïve enough to believe they’re going to just fly off the walls and orders are going to be flying in..

So I went back to school, and nothing really happened, and I just kind of left them sitting in the shop. Nearly two years later and my matric art exhibition was coming up, and I really wanted to put them in as I knew that that would guarantee me an A. During this time I had noticed a Casa sign up in the new building near to Origin in de Waterkant, but when I went back there was nothing there, so I went back to the original store in Sir Lowry Rd.. only to discover that a new store was in its place! I went in and spoke to the owners and what had transpired was that Casa had indeed moved but their shop in the new building had been flooded three times and so they had put everything into storage and were moving their store to Johannesburg! Yes I do realize that it must have been a mission to move their store, it being flooded three times plus then having to pack up, they must have been extremely busy and stressed out, but I did not get one email or phone call notifying that they would be taking my paintings anywhere with them, and I wanted them back!

I then tried to contact them myself, Retha the woman I had dealt with, and then Paul her brother who was the owner of the store, but neither of them answered my emails and their cell phones just rang. As a last resort I went back to where the old store in Sir Lowry Rd was, and the guy working there was very helpful and it turned out that the woman who worked as the cleaner in the new store was friends with the woman who had been the domestic at Retha home and gave me her friend’s number. When I eventually got hold of her friend it turned out that Retha had moved to Joburg still owing her thousands of Rands for weeks of work she had not been paid for! At this point I realized that I would perhaps never see my paintings ever again.. the woman who had worked for Retha had her new cell phone number and gave it to me. When we contacted her she was very defensive and said that the paintings were still in storage in Cape Town, and when I offered to go and pick them up myself she said that would be impossible. Now skipping a while, the man who was supposed to drop the paintings off at me before my exhibition never did and so my parents called their friend Raphael a lawyer, whom I’m told phoned her, words were exchanged and had her reassurance in 10 minutes that I would be getting my paintings back within a week..

And what a surprise I did get my paintings back, but I only received 3 of the 4! The lawyer called her again and she said the Blue one “was with a client” so he asked for the R2000 to be deposited in my bank account, and guess what it never was. That’s where it all kind of went cold she stopped answering her phone and as we didn’t have their address in Joburg no legal action could be taken against them.

2 months ago we managed to get hold of Paul Bouwers cell phone number (the owner of Casa Interiors) and gave him a call, he tried to bullshit saying that it was “with a client” and blah blah blah about his “business partner” the partner he was referring to was his sister, Retha. Got an sms saying “Mr Goldberg, as I previously stated I will pay your R2000. Payment will be made in the last week of Feb ’09…”

Its now nearly the end of March and that payment still hasn't come through. The painting to me is now worth a lot more than R2000, that’s how much I wanted for its 4 years ago.. so the money at this point is pretty much irrelevant, now its more about the principle. Be very careful of whom you do business & leave your precious artwork with because not everything black & white. Some people just have no morals.