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"This is a memoir of the star and subject of the Emmy-nominated documentary, ""Art and Craft,"" the story of the search for America's greatest living art forger, Mark Landis. A book in which the reader can satisfy both intellectual and artistic palates, the tone and subject matter of the text is reminiscent of J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, and the story of Mark Landis' life and art is reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh, who struggled with mental health issues his entire life. Despite the controversy of his forged paintings, Landis just may just turn out to be the most important artist of our generation. For more than two decades, Mark Landis, a mild-mannered, gentlemanly senior citizen who lived alone in his deceased mother's apartment, painted identical copies of the work of the great artists of the world and passed them off as authentic when he donated them to museums all across the country while disguised as a Jesuit priest. Ultimately, the FBI cleared him of any malicious intent and Landis explained that he did what he did because of painful loneliness. Those transactions were his main contact with the outside world. John Gapper, a reporter for the British-owned Financial Times, wrote a story in 2013 about Mark Landis after he got wind that someone from the Oklahoma Museum of Art believed that someone was donating forged paintings to museums all across the U.S. It was Gapper who tracked him down in Laurel, Mississippi, a small town that is probably best known for the popular home-renovation TV show, ""Home Town,"" and it was he who became the first person to do a face-to-face interview with Landis. As it turned out, Mark Landis, is an unassuming, 68-year-old genius with an IQ of 150 who has spent most of his life in mental health facilities, mostly in Mississippi, bravely coping with schizophrenia. The Menninger Clinic, which treated him as a teen, told his mother that he likely would have to be institutionalized for the remainder of his life. However, despite his mental illness (he is likely also autistic), he has created not only flawless forgeries of the world's greatest art, using materials purchased from Walmart and Hobby Lobby, but also a memorable body of original art, which he is now willing to share with the public in this book. In 2022, Landis' forged and some original paintings were exhibited in New York City at Salomon Arts Gallery in association with Wirth Galarie. His work also has been exhibited at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts. Landis was not arrested for his forgeries because he never asked for money for the artwork and he never claimed them as donations on his income tax returns. Despite the efforts of some to make him into a common criminal, his art fantasies are a threat to no one but himself. He is a prolific reader and has lived in the Philippines and throughout Europe with his parents, and San Francisco and Chicago, where he lived alone and attended the Chicago Art Institute."

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Mark Landis is an accomplished artist who some art critics consider one of the best painters of his generation. He also is known as perhaps the best living forger of art from any generation. A longtime resident of Mississippi, he duped the experts at many American museums with his forgeries, which he never benefited from financially. He presented his artwork to museums across the country at no charge. His work becomes even more impressive when you consider that he has suffered from mental illness for most of his life, at times confined to institutions. In his very moving book, he addresses his illness with insight, good humor, and an understanding of the incredible journey he has traveled to achieve success in his profession. Christen Shepherd is a gifted Canadian writer who was able to bring out the complicated personality and artistic vision of her subject through three years of interviews with him. Shepherd is a resident of Ontario, Canada, where she lives with her husband, four adopted children and an assortment of dogs, donkeys and trees. She has written for Today's Parent Magazine and The Huffington Post Canada. She has a post-graduate certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers, under the supervision of Governor General Award-winning author, Dianne Bruneau-and a degree in anthropology from the University of Western Ontario.

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