1010. Dependent as they were on scavenged raw materials their paintings and drawing had a much more rustic and primitive look than did Coromo's pictures and this was an advantage to them in the one to five dollar picture trade, because they had no costs to cover.
1011. Coromo, on the other hand, had started out with expensive artists materials, he had developed his skills with real materials, and even though, when he saw all of this other art which cost nothing to make he saw their advantage, it was too late for him to change direction. After all, he still had to replace Talullah's art supplies as well as paint pictures for her before her anticipated yearly visit at the end of the season.
1012. And don't go getting the idea that any time natives start selling pictures to tourists it is going to be a big success, and everyone will be happy and the natives will make a lot of money. That would be as naive as thinking that anyone buying and selling space in shipping containers like Mr. VanDusenberg was doing, is bound to make money. Such assumptions about success belittle true accomplishment, Coromo's accomplishment.
1013. What Coromo had done was to create a new art market, a market that would sustain his community for years to come, and he did it the way all great deeds are accomplished, by accident, on an unseen wave of history that picks a person up in one place, and deposits them in another, along with their entire world. All truly great deeds are effortless, that is the simple truth.
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