Once again, the mainstream media has made an attempt at covering the Hall of Fame contest scandal – and once again the true issues have been ignored in favor of making mainstream scrapbookers look like conservative shrews.
This time the coverage was from the LA Times in the form of an interview and article about Kristina Contes. The reporter was a New York-based Times staffer named Erika Hayasaki who seems to take at face value Contes’ tales of scrapbook superstardom and persecution by the conservative masses that she claims caused her downfall. Contes is described as an “avant-garde” artist whose work simply wasn’t appreciated by what Contes calls the “stepford wife mindset” of scrapbooking.
Missing once again from this account of the scandal are two things: any culpability on the part of Contes, and any culpability on the part of Creating Keepsakes. They are presented as victims of a vendetta by “disgruntled” scrapbookers who hated Contes and her art and used the rules violation as a way to knock her down.
The persecuted artist is a great, recurring theme in art history…but it isn’t the story here.
The story here is of a woman who either failed to read or chose to ignore the rules to one of her industry’s most major contests. She then went on to sign an affidavit as a winner that said she had followed those rules. But, OOOPS! She hadn’t followed the rules! Her entry contained multiple layouts using photos of her and her husband that had been taken during a formal photo session by her friend (and former Hall of Famer) Nisa Fiin, a professional photographer. This wasn’t exactly “I forgot my husband took that picture of the dog with my camera.” But apparently in the eyes of the LA Times, this was an “inadvertant” violation.
The rest of the story, which is not addressed by the Times at all, is that it should have been obvious to Creating Keepsakes during judging that Contes had not taken those photos. Yet, they still allowed her to win the contest. Rumors of favoritism and fixed judging have surrounded the contest for years. This issue came up again when the high-profile Contes, who appeals to a demographic that the magazine has been actively courting of late, won with photos that seemed to blatantly violate the rules. It called into question yet again the veracity of the judging process.
But instead of hearing about all that, the real story, what we have once again from a major news publication about the scrapbooking scandal of 2007 is Kristina Contes putting on her “poor me” performance yet again.
I’d really love to know who her PR person is. They are doing a great job of selling her to the media as the victim of a scrapbook lynch mob. And she’s doing a great job of acting the part.
But the real victim in all of this isn’t Kristina Contes. It’s the scrapbook industry as a whole because of the picture that is being painted of it in the media. Does Kristina understand or care that she may be giving yet another body blow to an industry that is already suffering from a downturn?
Maybe she does understand. Maybe she isn’t as dumb as a lot of people think she is. Maybe she is having the last laugh.
Great article, I am still shaking my head at KC and CK for playing the victim role when what they did was wrong.
Your article is pathetic. You MUST be one of the shrews because this article just came out this morning and you felt compelled enough to write about it the same day – even when your last post was days ago. Kristina Contes is talented, is a lot more interesting than most and people like you DO make the industry look bad for all of the attention you devote to the subject. You also make yourself look like a jealous, insecure person for needing to publicize your rage. Shame on you.
Ethics, morality, standards, fairness, integrity – personal and business; if these are the hallmarks of a Stepford Wife Scrapbooker than please please sign me up!
I think you have it exactly right, the real “victim” is the industry that so many of us love!
You know, I didn’t even really care that much until she started taking swipes at the rest of us. Just cause I don’t drink beer and swear constantly doesn’t mean that I’m not a creative genius!!
You are so right!!! I’m so sick of the mainstream media not getting the story straight. There are two sides to everything. Gurr. I’ve had enough of this one.
Even from far away in Singapore where I am, scrappers watched with great interest the unfolding drama. It’s incredible how US celeb scrappers have so much swaym with equal amounts of supportors and those who felt KC and CK were wrong. And I certainly agree with you that whoever is managing their PR is a spin genius.
Enjoyed reading your post !
Finally! Someone who agrees with me. Reading that LA Times article (and by the way also the Chicago Tribune same article) made me sick. They’ve portrayed her as this scrapbooker who was setting some sort of cool trendy way to scrapbook that doesn’t involve all hearts and flowers and children, when frankly before all this happened I had never even heard of her. And I’ve been watching Ali Edwards and Donna Downey scrapbook in a cool way without all the hearts/flowers for years before this girl came around.
Corinna
my blog http://www.myscrapbooklife.com
I actually just came across this (I had heard about it at the time but didn’t pay much attention.) I am just confused, if I was entering a scrapbook layout contest and the rules said work must be mine, I wouldn’t think about the photo! I scrap photos my family has taken, my son has taken, it’s not important to me and I just wouldn’t have thought that who took the photos was part of the ‘work that must be mine” oh well, I will just go back to scrappin’ and avoid any drama (this is my stress relieving activity after all)