Reproduce: Mommy, where do Jacques come from?

Throughout the creative process the location of where our Jacque was being created was quite ambiguous. Most of us had heard horror stories about reproduction paintings being out sourced to China where the artists are treated as...let's just say "starving artists," literally. When we received a biography of our Ocean's Bridge artist we learned that he was from China, leading us to imagine our hand painted masterpiece being conceived in China under sweatshop-like conditions.

However, on the Ocean's Bridge website there is a whole section dedicated to showing the prospective customer "the studio." According to their Web site their studio is "Located at the foot of a mountain yet just 200 yards from the beach, we've 20,000 square feet of studio space spread over three different European-style buildings." The description is supplemented by photographs of lush landscape and beautiful buildings.

I am by no means saying that Ocean's Bridge is one of the reproduction painting sweatshops mentioned above, but when our Jacque arrived this week the return address (Hong Kong, China) did make us question the journey of our Jacque.

Reproduce: Our Baby's Conception

Have you ever found yourself standing in front of a work of art, wishing you could steal have it? Maybe you even went so far as to think about how amazing it would look above your fireplace or in your dining room. But masterpieces, especially oil paintings, can never be reproduced…right?

Wrong! Thanks to Ocean’s Bridge, an oil painting reproduction company/ artist collective, you can now buy your very own hand painted masterpiece, free shipping included! According to Ocean’s Bridge, they are able to reproduce a bevy of renowned oil paintings because a painting enters the public domain once the artist has been deceased for more than 70
years ago (so make sure that your desired oil painting was done by an artist that has been long gone).

I can say from experience that Ocean’s Bridge is a dream to work with. I contacted them when we were first thinking about buying a reproduction for re:View. After fully interrogating the company through emails, I got all my questions answered and concerns taken care of. After deciding to purchase the Jacque painting for our exhibition, I have continued to keep in touch with James at Ocean’s Bridge. He sends me reassuring emails that our painting is in good hands, even sending me pictures of the “artistic process.” James has become our painting’s surrogate mom and we are so excited for our baby’s arrival!

- Jayme Wilson