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Bari Zaki, a lady entrepreneur in Chicago, managed to get some free advertising from the Chicago Tribune last weekend (registration required). Her business is to put old stamps on old envelopes, call them art, and wait for the money to roll in. Now why didn’t I think of that!! As Dick Sine says in the article, stamp collectors and dealers have been doing the exact same thing for years for free.
Your snide remarks on part of Bari Zaki’s work [”Her business is to put old stamps on old envelopes, call them art, and wait for the money to roll in.”] are gratuitously insulting and mainly indicative of your own ignorance. Check out her website [barizaki.com] to get a real idea of what she does - or check out what some others think of her work [reallifeweddings.com]. I think you should post an apology for your remarks. And, yes, Bari is a friend of mine - and I am a main supplier of stamps for her philatelic projects [whether those spring from her own creativity or are comissioned by clients]; I do not consider the 20c to 32c stamps I sold her last week to be “old” in any sense other than she did not not buy them directly from the USPS.
Mr. Berg. I don’t think I owe anyone an apology. I am entitled to an opinion, just the same as you are. I’m sorry you didn’t like this post, but thanks for looking deep enough into the site to find it. Come on back, I’m sure you will find something you DO like. In fact, I did visit her site 9 months ago when I wrote this post, and my opinion remains the same. All artists must endure the same critiques, some will be positive, some will not be. Again, thanks for visiting.
My name is Chandra Greer. I sell Bari Zaki’s vintage postage envelopes at my store GREER. When they were featured in InStyle last September we sold 750 of them. Bari is one of the most creative and innovative artists around. The artistry she shows in selecting the stamp combinations, the craftsmanship with which she places them on the envelope and the drop dead gorgeous NEW cards and envelopes she selects from the finest papers around the world are phenomenal.
As far as the “money rolling in,” Bari lives a very modest life for the amount of work and talent she puts into everything she does. We buy her vintage envelope combinations at wholesale which you can imagine is far less than the $5.50 selling price. She probably makes about $1 for each card sold. We make very little profit on them as well, but our committment to this unique product which makes so many people happy and our support of this gentle and talented soul is well worth it.