Online Casinos and Poker bring Art to Masses

Earn thousands? For little or no work? Seems perfect for an artist. I think I'll sell my signature. Auction it off. Not the physical signature like an autograph, but the content.

Right now a 31-year-old father of two is selling the naming right of his middle name on eBay. The "Buy It Now" price is $8,000. As of early Monday the high bid is already $2,175. Driven by a dislike of his middle name rather than a desire to make money, Matthew Jean Rouse is letting you pick a new one. For a price.

The winning bidder gets to choose a new middle name for Rouse, who agrees to use his middle name "whenever plausible and not hide it." And his brother is bidding for him to keep his name. If he really doesn't like his middle name shouldn't he be disallowing his brother's participation? Or at least the name that he wants changed?

So why not my signature. Every painting signed not "Gripes" but "Casino-Casino XYZ.com", maybe just for five years and then hold another auction for signing rights.

If you're looking for a new way to generate income easily - with the explosion of the online world come new opportunities. You no longer need tons of cash to reach a large audience. You can paint in your own home and then sign as an advertisment of your choice. Is that branding technically not what Renaissance artists did anyway? And Koons and Hirst today?

There's a lot of it about these days and it's changing what people look like and how they behave. People themselves are becoming the ultimate multimedia tools as advertising harnesses technology.

Last month there was the case of the man who auctioned off his voice on eBay. He sold the rights to what he would shout out every fifteen minutes for a week wherever he was. And a firm that sells things to sooth sore throats (presumably caused by shouting every fifteen minutes for a week) won the auction.

Back in January there was a lot of fuss about the auction for advertising space on somebody's head which netted $37,000, but it was hardly the first bit of selling your body or its functions for advertising.

It was in December of 2003 that the headline "World's First 'Living' Advertisement Makes A Big Splash" appeared but over six months earlier the "World’s first walking, talking 'Human Billboard' captures worldwide attention for C I Host".

For over a year now, the humorously named Cunning Stunts developed a network of students to display brand logos or straplines on their foreheads, but that was two years after Ad tattoos first got under some people's skin.

But don't we all remember the first one? Was it not Golden Palace - as they Raised Funds for Retired Boxers?

And each case creates uproar. Uproar from people wearing clothing with labels and trademarks, carrying bags littered with designs and or text, driving cars with insignia, and driving cattle with branding marks.

Recently TatADS have tried to hook everybody together. Immediately the online gambling community jumps on board. GoldenPalace.com and Absolutepoker.com, two of the largest internet gambling companies in the world, signed on as sponsors for the TatAD Las Vegas launch.

"The Human Billboard” of LivingAdSpace.com, recently seen on Conan O’Brien's show also appeared as a special guest. But then being a living billboard everything he does is making an appearance. He can't use a public urinal without making an appearance.

The average person sees over 500 different ads every day, is the beginning of the justification by TatADS for putting corporations, human advertising space, and tatoo artists together. Personally I love that they champion Tatoo artists and plead that they are not denigrating their art form by getting them to tatoo corporate logos and slogans on people. A movement by the people. Ahhh, that's nice. Last time I looked over a thousand people were happily signed up for branding.

Wouldn't it be so much easier for historians to document my art by brand. Every five years sponsored with the slogan or web address as the signature, thereby making very clear what exactly is my blue period or rose period. Though not blue and rose periods literally, for that would just be silly.

But how would I be treated when I return to my parents? My father carries his lunch to work in plastic bags that he always turns inside out so as to not advertise. And he artfully scrapes beer logos off clocks and other mechanical freebies. Well I reckon selling my signature just means he'd reverse my paintings to the walls of the family home whenever my parents would have guests over to visit. Isn't that so much better than what he might do to me if I walked in to the house with a tatoo on my forehead?

Paul Dorrell states "In my gallery, my artists and I usually split advertising expenses."