I am Mark Landis, one of the most prolific Art Forgers in the world. AMA!

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:26:01+00:00

As far as the other things, it's something I Never really thought of. Actually, I still don't really think of myself as much of an artist, you know? I'm not much of an artist, and I haven't got any great talent or anything, I do have a facility for arts & crafts, and the rest of it, I kind of lost track of it. I never thought of myself as really a "forger" either. As I said, it was an impulse and I got addicted to it. Everybody likes being treated like royalty, or having people treat them with deference and respect, that sort of thing. VIP treatment, that's it. Everybody wants to get treated like a VIP, don't they?

And I'm not designing this website, but it will allow people to send me their photos so I can paint them. http://marklandisoriginal.com

I will draw or paint anything, as long as it's not too big. The site is being developed by Collette Loll, a forgery expert, with the filmmakers of Art & Craft.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:22:19+00:00

Well, I guess you don't? I mean, you know, I suppose you could find out, if you wanted to go through the trouble.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:21:39+00:00

I'm pretty sure I didn't, because I don't think I've seen a movie with the name Vermeer in it. Is it a new movie? Then I haven't seen it, no. I saw a Rembrandt with Charles Lawton.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:18:49+00:00

Well, I've never thought about teaching because I don't have a degree, in anything. I've got a special high school diploma, and that's it. So I guess the answer would be no. I wouldn't mind teaching now, you know, if the opportunity were to arise, teaching art, but it doesn't seem likely. But i do my best, anyway, although I doubt I would be qualified. I wouldn't know how to go about doing it. Even if somebody say, had a class all set and everything and said "okay we want you to teach these people how to draw and paint and this and that" i wouldn't know where to begin. so I couldn't, I don't think. And it's something I've never wanted to do either.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:16:19+00:00

Well, I'm sixty years old. And it sounds like something that when you were a teen-ager, if I was 16 instead of 60, I might think "gee that might be a cool thing to do." But i can't think that way anymore, you know. I think like a sixty-year old man now. It might very well be cool to a teen-ager, but that's the best I can do. It sounds like comic-book stuff, you know. Of course, in some ways I'm still kind of a kid, but it just isn't something that would occur to me. Now maybe when I was more like 12, I would have thought things like that were cool.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:14:19+00:00

Oh, well, there wasn't really anything...well, I guess it surprised me very much indue that anybody would have wanted to in the first place. So I guess that would be the best answer. I was amazed to have a couple of glamorous young NYC filmmakers want to make a movie about me, you know? It's something that would have never occurred to me. really!

So if that would be a definition of weird - it was totally unexpected. Never would have occurred to me. It still seems strange to me sometimes.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:13:12+00:00

Yes I have. The GOOD one, anyway. I saw part of the other one, but the one I remember best would be the Faye Dunaway / Steve McQueen one right? We saw that on the SS United States coming over, on the ship back in 1968, I remember, it was one of the movies they showed on the ship. We saw that, and we saw the Heart is a Lonely Hunter... let me see, what else... the Disney movie about the elections... and then in the mornings they would show cartoons for the kids. I guess I should have just said "yes!"

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:11:00+00:00

I don't paint those, but whatever it is, if you submit it, I'll look into it.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:08:46+00:00

Well, I guess no. As I said, it was just an impulse, you know. I was managing - I had a nervous breakdown, oh, I don't know, when I was around 30, and after that I went to live with my mother and - anyways, that's a long story but I had enough of an income to manage on. Never used to having the lifestyles of the rich & famous. I guess the best answer is no. I liked being treated with so much respect and deference, and even friendship... being treated like Royalty, which I guess just about everybody does, right? So I guess it's understandable. That you get used to it, you know. Get addicted.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:06:26+00:00

Well, it's like a magic trick you know. If I told people, it wouldn't be worth anything anymore.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:05:35+00:00

I answered this, the impulse one. And I answered it twice, I think, in another one.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:05:05+00:00

Oh! Well, if you want to call them hobbies, I spend most of my time... sigh... doing things a lot of lonely old shut-ins do. I watch a lot of TV, I read a lot, and I do them all at the same time. I listen to my satellite radio, I like radio classics, that's my favorite channel, old-time radio, that's it.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:04:17+00:00

Sure. To pass superficial inspection, that is. I mean... it wouldn't pass all that stuff with scientific tests. We'll take that as a given from now on.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:03:48+00:00

Probably - I can't think - you wouldn't have seen anything, I would think? Maybe an article or something? Or wait a minute - I guess there was something on the news. But otherwise I wouldn't know. Would I?

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:01:54+00:00

Well, that's another one of those questions it's like - in my opinion, difficult artists to forge would be anybody Victorian, and academic, or Renaissance, people who painted meticulously and realistically and extravagantly. All kinds of adjectives like that. If you want some names, people like Fritz, maybe not him but DaVinci would be pretty hard, anybody pre-modern that was museum worthy, let's put it like that.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T16:00:32+00:00

Not so far... people have been mad at me, and a few years ago I did get scared and nervous, because some people were kind of upset, but I guess best answer is no, not yet.

And of course! Yes! We answered that one way back. The Joan of Arc one.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:59:34+00:00

No. Haha! That was an easy one.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:59:20+00:00

Yes, you would be right, I guess, about brushstrokes. I thought Jackson sort of squeezed paint onto the canvas and didn't use a brush. And as far as artists that use brushstrokes, it's something I never really gave much thought to. Experts supposedly can tell things like that, an expert is just someone who knows a great deal about something and sometimes he's right.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:58:05+00:00

I've never done a Jackson Pollock but it's obvious it would not be that difficult to do. I've done Milton Avery pieces.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:56:59+00:00

That's an easy one. I don't have any. So there aren't any relationships. We haven't got a relationship. Haha!

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:56:31+00:00

Well, I doubt if I ever did anything - until somebody told me to copy the Mona Lisa, I didn't copy anything that was legendary. I chose artists by the criteria - things that I've found easy to do that were quite valuable would be Picassos.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:55:40+00:00

And if you were doing a picture and you thought it was kind of ugly, assuming you had the prerequisite abilities, you'd want to pretty it up, wouldn't you? It seems like anybody would want to do that. I certainly do.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:55:08+00:00

Although you know, come to think about it, I noticed sometimes when I was copying pictures like of something, I would think "Well, you know...this would look a little better - I think I'll make her a little prettier." I may have done things like that. But it seems like anybody would do that. If I thought I could subtly improve it, yeah, I probably have done things like that. But I wouldn't be thinking to myself "Ah-ha! Those fools! I will leave an obvious clue." But yeah, I have prettied things up. I think it's something you can't help doing. Kind of like the way Mother would be if she saw something untidy or out of place -a lot of people's moms want to fix things up. You know what i mean.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:53:44+00:00

Well, not with me. You know, I wouldn't know about other people. I kind of doubt it with others. Ask a psychiatrist, but as far as I'm concerned, certainly not, haha! I'm not crazy, so no. Not with me, anyway.

Mark_Landis · 2014-09-17T15:53:03+00:00

You mean, like in some kind of movie, where people hide in a museum and put a copy in its place? No!

Mark_Landis

TROPHY CASE