Candy Waters Art Scam? Part 5

We would like to thank everyone who has messaged in and commented with their experiences. If you wish to remain anonymous, we completely understand given the hostility the family has exerted on those publicly expressing their concerns.

We received the following information from a former therapist of Candy’s:

Just wanted to let you know that I used to work with Candy at a school, I was her 1:1 aide. I worked with her for about 6 months at the school and also worked with her after school at home. I have long questioned this art that the family claims to be hers because when I worked with her she had 0 art skills. She did not have the fine motor skills to control her movements and paint anything besides blobs. She would often just stim with the paint. I do not believe this is Candace’s art work and I think it is despicable what the family is doing. They would often times just leave her alone in the backyard kiddy pool. I complained to the school once about it.

It has been a concern of many that this child’s developmental needs are not being met, or that she is perhaps deliberately being stunted to preserve this potential scam.

If you have information you wish to share, please comment below. You can enter “anonymous” as the name if you wish to remain anonymous.

Candy Waters Autism Art Scam? pt 4

I invite you to view the comments on this blog, particularly the earliest entry, however the business owners of “Candy Waters Autism Art” offer comment on the first 3 entries.

You may notice that they do not address any of the concerns raised on this blog nor offer proof of authenticity of their product to consumers.

Instead, it appears, those commenting became personal targets of harassment by the business owners.

The following is a statement I’ve pulled from one of the commenters and her experience:

alina says:
March 5, 2016 at 11:53 am
This is my last comment on the situation as I’ve been alerted that my private information is now being shared by the Waters due to an innocent inquiry and comment on this blog.

My comment has never been about the family on a personal level, but about the business which happens to be named after their autistic child. I have not had any contact with this child or any desire to.

The blog is a collective of opinions. I am easily targeted because of my art business, which is a separate and irrelevant entity to this discussion.

Not only has the Waters family now posted my information in an effort to slander me, but they have spent Mar 2 – 4 researching and calling/emailing my past and current employers, institutions that show my artwork or are some how affiliated with me, as well as family members of mine that have been connected to what ever report they paid for to get unlisted information about me. The Waters have told them I am “stalking/harrassing their child who is a minor with autism” and spreading other falsehoods about me in an effort to deliberately ruin my reputation. I am not stalking anyone. It appears to be the other way around.

This behavior is absolutely uncalled for.
To inquire to a foundation, charity, or reporter about the authenticity of a product they endorse is one thing. To deliberately slander my name based on a personal opinion/belief I have that is in no way a representation of my art or my business, to my business colleagues in an effort to ruin my reputation is not only vengeful and reckless, but grounds for harassment.

The police are handling the situation and any further comment will come from my attorneys should the Waters continue to harrass me both on and offline.

I should also note that I removed the comments where Robert and Sandy Waters listed Alina’s personal address, because not only is that in direct violation of WordPress’s guidelines, but that is also a huge violation of someone’s privacy and against the law.

In all my years of business, I have never seen such reckless malicious actions from business owners in response to customer inquiry. Why resort to such behavior if you are in fact selling authentic products i.e artwork that was actually painted by a child with autism and not someone else?

Candy Waters Autism Art Scam? pt 3

Many news stories covering Candy Water’s art say the sale of the artwork has a charitable component, with half of the proceeds benefiting others with autism through the Kind Tree-Autism Rocks Foundation.

For example, in a recent article that was posted to the Autism Speaks website, it states:

…Kind Tree-Autism Rocks Foundation. Half of all proceeds from the sales of Candy’s prints are going to help others on the autism spectrum fulfill their dreams of becoming artists…

In an effort to find out the accuracy of this statement, we reached out to Kind Tree. According to them:

1.  Kind Tree-Autism Rocks Foundation does not sell work by Candy Waters. Their whole sales portal shut down last year.
2. Artists were paid 50% of the sale of their reproductions that they printed and that came through their sales portal.
3. Annual sales of Candy Waters through KindTree were roughly only $50.00 with 50% of that going to the foundation.
4. Other sales Candy might have through her mother’s websites do not benefit KindTree.
5. KindTree also could not comment on whether or not Candy created the art because they did not require proof of disability or a certificate of authenticity for the art.

So it is clear that the Zazzle sales do not benefit this charity and are a separate endeavor.

Besides Zazzle, Candy’s work appears for sale with We Are Lions. We Are Lions is not a charity and according to them:

I have never seen her make artwork personally, no. I cannot speak for what Candy and her family profess to be doing on their zazzle page, but We Are Lions is not a charity nor do we claim to be. We believe that these artists are talented individuals and through the sale of their artwork, handouts are not encouraged or necessary.

That being said, we give our artists and non-profit partners commission rates and royalty fees of 50% of net profits. When someone purchases from wearelions.org, a for-profit company, the consumer is not donating money directly to the organization or charity in which the original piece of artwork sold came from.

It also appears that We Are Lions has since removed Candy’s work from their shop.

This blog is in no way a personal attack on Candy Waters or her family, or on special needs children. The item in question is the authenticity of the artwork being sold online and the validity of the statement that it has a charitable mission for Autism.

When direct inquiries to Sandy regarding Candy’s process and whether a child with Autism created the work being sold were deleted on the Candy Waters Autism Artist Facebook page and other posts administrated by Sandy Waters, the discussion moved elsewhere in an effort to find out if anyone truly has seen this child create these paintings claimed to be made by her, or could provide proof of their authenticity.  Naturally, people and organizations that had published interviews on the artwork were also contacted in an effort to prove their authenticity. To this date, none of the organizations contacted can attest to Candy actually creating the paintings sold on the zazzle shop and the only video published of Candy painting has been suddenly removed from YouTube. The foundations affiliated with the sale of the artwork also do not seem to have a charity component for the sale of the artwork, nor any involvement with the artwork on zazzle, as has been previously advertised.

Candy Waters Art Scam? pt 2

Sandy and Robert Waters, the parents of Candace Waters, have commented the initial post upon the discovery of the page yesterday. You are welcome to view their comments, which have all been accepted, and read through the discourse between them and other parents of Autistic children.

If there is any confusion, the Waters are also posting under an alias in addition to this by the name “Liiz”. These were all submitted from the same person.

The original link shared with the public Youtube video of Candy Waters painting has been removed by her parents after being online since 2013. You can access the video here, as well as clips within this news segment (turn your sound up to hear the background audio).

For those that did not get to see the full video first hand, I will offer a synopsis of it here:

Candy Waters is 14 years old in the video. It is apparent that she is a child with autism. She is non-verbal and the severity of her autism shows that her coordination is also impaired. She is able to grasp a paintbrush somewhat unnaturally in a fist and swirls around paint on the surface before her very organically. Her father, Robert Waters, the man behind the camera in this video, is heard saying “Spread that paint”and coaching Candy to go back to painting when she loses focus and looks off elsewhere. This happens several times in the course of the video. The resulting painting is highly abstract, with a sort of muddy appearance due to spreading and mixing large amounts of paint together. There doesn’t appear to be any thought behind the markings on the surface but rather Candy is engaged by the act of painting itself; the tactility of the paint and pushing it around. The resulting image that is produced does not appear to have a premeditated composition. That is, it looks nothing like the artwork so heavily marketed on zazzle. On zazzle you see brightly colored paintings of suns, flowers, hearts, balloons and other representational imagery. The markings are precise, focused, and clean. The negative space and stark white of the paper are very important aspects of these paintings. Unlike the painting in the video, not all of the surface is covered in paint. The strokes themselves are delicate, varied. You can see the shape of the brush is important in these paintings. Sometimes the brush is used to “stamp” a pattern. In other times you see varying weights of the lines made. There is a definite and advanced understanding of color theory, “one-stroke” techniques, and composition. The abilities demonstrated in these paintings sold on zazzle do not match the abilities of Candy as shown in the YouTube video recorded by her parents. It is my opinion that her parents are the ones creating the zazzle paintings and not Candy Waters.

 

 

Candy Waters Autism Art Scam?

I think it is great that art is being used as an outlet for this child. What I find confusing is the independent sale of this artwork and heavy marketing online by her parents. If you research Candy Waters, you will see her parents promoting their zazzle shop that sells reproductions of her art in infinite forms, from greeting cards to clothing.

They have completely commercialized their daughter’s condition by creating a business with the artwork they claim as hers but show no evidence that she has actually painted it. They also claim that 50% of the sales of their zazzle products are donated to charity. Does the sale of this artwork actually benefit charity?

Beyond this, there is no visual evidence or proof that Candy has created the work that is so heavily branded as hers. If you watched the Youtube video of Candy painting, you will see her technique and resulting image differ completely from the style and precision in what is being sold on the zazzle shop. The two are night and day.

Consumers supporting the work of an autistic artist have a right to know the authenticity of the product they are buying. There is no evidence that they were done by an autistic artist. If you look at the following photo, labeled as Candy putting finishing touches on a painting, you will see that the painting is completely dry and the brush has no trace of paint on it at all.

Furthermore, when anyone directly inquires to the family about the process of Candy’s work, including parents of Autistic children, information that would be extremely helpful to them or therapists working with them, the comments get deleted, user gets banned, and the subject is completely avoided. Why do this unless you have a fraudulent operation you are trying to hide?

In an interview with a Licensed Art Therapist, her assessment of Candy’s work was as follows:

“I’ve worked with individuals with autism for the last five years, there are different levels of functioning. As autism is a Developmental Disorder, and often diagnosis is scale related, lower function to high function and the highest being Asperger’s. Candy seems to be lower functioning, and unable to produce the brush stroke seen in two of the paintings that I just looked at.
My individuals who cannot manipulate a paint brush, resemble Candy in the same manner and create abstract art, masses of color similar to what Candy does. My higher functioning individuals are able to manipulate the brush(es), and have completed portraits, still life’s and other compositions. I would also question it, as her father seems to do a lot of promoting in the video, telling her to spread that paint more. She is easily distracted, and her attention span is brief. Candy would not be able to do something like the birds without handover hand assistance, or someone doing it for her.”