Hand Painted... digitally?

Hubby and I were walking through the mall last night and I saw this in a camera store (I've removed identifiers that would most likely get me sued for goofing on this).

Its a placard under a "portrait" that advertises "digitally hand painted" portraits.

Granted, I've seen some VERY nice digital paintings. When I think digital paintings, I see someone with a blank slate who uses the digital pad and pen to freehand paint either something in their head, or recreate something they are looking at. What this store was selling looked suspiciously like a digital program that with a click of a button, turns a picture into something that resembles a painting, that was printed onto canvas to make it look more like a painting. Every flaw from the photograph was there, every detail, everything. Its something that any third grader can do with a reasonably priced photo editor and printer. Once click and TAHDAH!

Ok great, if you don't have a computer, or the computer savvy of a third grader and can't do this for yourself and want it done, fine, but to call it "hand painted"?

I have the highest regard for people that embroider. They take actual needles, and actual thread, and they use the needle and thread to follow a pattern and make something pretty cool looking. It takes a lot of work, time, and probably more than a few pokes from the needle.

On the other hand, you now have sewing machines that you plop a USB card into with a picture, load up the right color thread and that sucker spews out the exact replica of the picture on the card. All the person has to do is... nothing, they could be in another room watching tv for all you know, and yet they expect the same admiration and ooohing and aahing as if they spent months painstakingly poking needle through fabric and doing it by hand. That's not art, that's lazy and sweat shop-like.

We're becoming a mass production "art" machine. Just about anyone with a computer and printer can make their own cards, invitations, t-shirts, or whatever and usually "borrow" other people's hard work to get the perfect picture to slap on those things. Its not the finished product that counts, its actually HOW you get the finished project.

Taking something from your head and creating it yourself, not slapping a pre-made template into a machine and printing it out, there's no glory or pride in that.

Stop making things seem like something else. If you take a picture, click a button, print it on a canvas, don't call it "hand painted". If you smoosh paints on a pallet, use a brush and paint something you are looking at or have in your head... that's hand painted.