I should have seen this one coming. Every so often, I write a column for the Opus Visual Arts Newsletter that really resonates with readers, and that certainly happened with the November editorial. By writing about the difficulties that can happen between artists and their sales representatives—commercial art gallery or sales agent—I opened the floodgates.

I wish to sincerely thank all of you who have written. Sharing your thoughts with me can mean sharing your ideas or experience with thousands of visual artists when I draw from your contributions in an Opus editorial. (I always write to ask if I may use your name or use your words anonymously.) I want to especially thank those of you who wrote with practical suggestions, offers of help for others and those who wrote to praise those galleries or dealers who do business professionally and with honour.

Krista Patterson, for example, sent me a link to The Society of North American Goldsmiths' website (www.snagmetalsmith.org). It is a rich resource for practical information to sellers of art. From the homepage, if you click on "Publications" from the list in the upper left, then click "Professional Guidelines," you will find lots of interesting information—particularly the "Guide to A Model Consignment Contract."

Lawrence Tracey of the WestWind Art Gallery & Framing in Langley, BC (www.wwag.ca) has offered to host a website where artists can post warnings about non-professional dealers and galleries. This idea needs careful execution in terms of legal liability. You want to ensure that no reputable dealer is slandered. I have seen sites where stolen art can be registered that require people posting notices ("posters") to have a police crime number or a court document number that ensures readers that the posted report is valid. The best such site being MyArtClub.Com/Stolen.Art. Artists who have suffered theft of artwork are encouraged to visit the site.

Several writers wrote about an aspect of the dealer/artist relationship that I did not mention in the November editorial—dealers increasing their commission percentage without informing the artist. There's only one word for that—sleazy! Another mentioned the degree to which his paintings were being rented for use by movie and television producers as set decoration. The artist who wrote to me received no financial benefit from the rental and while they were rented they were not available to buyers in the dealers' gallery. This is definitely a practice that is not in the artist's best interest and such use of your artwork should be part of every artist's consignment contract.

As for recourse when there is a problem, two writers had some very interesting things to say that have been said here before. Sometimes dealing with lawyers can be worse or as bad as dealing with dishonest dealers.

1) "I contacted a lawyer...He said...that we could go after her personally, the Company (she was a director) and the Gallery. A letter was initiated claiming the $1K (the name of the customer was mentioned in the letter so she could not deny our claim). One week later, I read an article in The Vancouver Sun—the heading was: "City dealer owes artist $24,000 Court says". Yes, the very same dealer owed (another) artist money for 12 unsold pieces and 9 which (the dealer) sold and (then) pocketed the money. At that point, I gave up."

2) "The end result: I'm owed $4300 for sold work and 2 pieces worth another $2350 are missing. I had an ineffective lawyer who saw that I wasn't going to feather his nest in fees. He promised to issue the summons twice and still hasn't gotten around to it. Meanwhile a large equipment rental company has sued (the) gallery for almost $30,000 they owe for the giclee equipment they have. The company is limited; I am a private citizen. Bottom line—I will not be reimbursed."

Please write to me if you have something to contribute to this dialogue.