Why I support tariffs as an artist.

Digital Art by Beau Tardy produced on Quantel Paintbox - 1992

Starting at about age 10 is when I realized how much I liked TV Cartoons and Comic Books and so right then and there I decided I wanted to learn how to draw. For the next 14 years I traced and copied my favorite characters, studied how animation was done, got mentored by cartoonists and eventually ended up in art school. As I grew older I came to understand that there was a wider world of visual arts out there that went back centuries. From Roman and Greek sculptures to Rembrandt and Picasso, our culture had a rich tradition of incredible works of art. I became fascinated with learning how to do figure drawing from live models and classical master oil painting techniques. Even Walt Disney himself insisted that his artists study the classics and for that purpose created one of the most reputable art colleges in the world known today as Cal Arts. 

While at Parsons’ School of Design in the early 80s, I became acutely aware of something that was happening with technology that would impact the arts. Computer Graphics were just starting to appear on TV and the movies and I knew right away that this was the future. This prompted me to want to learn computer graphics and how to shoot and edit video. In 1985 the path forward wasn’t very clearly defined for an art student who drew comics but also liked computers and video. However, I knew that TV Graphics could be a lot better if only trained artists could get a hand on those extremely expensive computers. At the time a TV Graphics computer cost upwards of $150k and would rent out for $1000/ hour and so nobody was eager to let some grubby art kid mess around on their cutting edge systems. But with perseverance I was finally able to convince a video post-production company to give me a shot and that launched my professional career. 

Following that, for the next 25 years I worked as a Broadcast and Motion Designer for TV Networks in the US and around the world. Most famously I worked at MTV doing graphics for Yo! MTV Raps, MTV News and The Real World. I also worked for Nickelodeon, VH1, NBC Sports, The Food Network, Cartoon Network, Fox Networks, etc. Internationally I worked for Global Japan, MTV International and Australian TV. You get the picture (pun intended)!

MTV Logo design by Beau Tardy on Quantel Paintbox - 1992

But in the early 2000s, something happened that shifted everything. Up until then, my profession was a very specialized field with expensive equipment and big budgets. Almost overnight it seemed, the production budgets collapsed. This was due to two factors. The first was the availability of cheaper computers such as Macs, but the second factor was much more insidious. Work was being shipped overseas. Hollywood and TV Networks had figured out that they could buy a bunch of cheap computers and install them in bunny warrens overseas in third world countries like India, South America and China. They could then hire locals for pennies on the dollar and ‘train’ them to do VFX and graphics work. This is why today when you watch a movie all the VFX credits feature a bunch of Indian and Chinese names. There was no way that highly trained professionals like myself could compete with those budgets. As a result, the entire VFX and graphics industry has now moved exclusively overseas. 

Predictably, I had to re-orient my career and readjust my lifestyle. I could no longer work in the field I had spent almost 30 years of my life perfecting. Increasingly, movies and TV shows developed a strange ‘bland’ esthetic, where it seemed the locations, the actors and even the stories didn’t feel authentic. That’s because they would shoot and produce everything overseas, replacing American cities with ‘generic’ shots taken in South Africa or Argentina. If you ever asked yourself why movies don’t seem as compelling as they used to, perhaps that has something to do with it. What’s worse is that the industry blatantly decided to indulge in paying slave wages, whereby an Indian VFX artist today only makes about $9000 PER YEAR! That equates to $750 A MONTH, or $187 a week, which is $37 a day!!!!!!!!!!! (source: https://blog.internshala.com/vfx-artist-salary-in-india/ )

The quality of the work suffers of course. But the bean counters don’t care, they are looking at the bottom line. This is absolutely terrible for artists. How can an American artist compete when he/ she needs to make 10x what a Vietnamese artist makes? Have you ever noticed those paintings at Hobby Lobby or Pottery Barn that sell for $50 or $100? They are made in sweat shops overseas. Why would anybody buy one of those when there are hundreds of wonderful young artists right here who could make a painting with so much more heart and love? Why are we letting overseas underpaid labor dictate to us what our cultural standards are? This system is broken and that I why I fully support tariffs on imports. My only hope is that these tariffs will apply to digital media and art work as well. This is the only way to quell this disaster for our culture and the arts. The other solution is for everyone to start buying art from artists you know and not generic crap from overseas.

BeLove.Art ©Beau Tardy 2025