What would you folks think about someone that is using a FAKE child with a FAKE condition to try and get posters from artists ? Well it's happening right now !!!!
On Febuary 8 artist Mark Arminski sent me an email he got from Cort Kern asking if I knew him or anything about him. I said no, what's up ?
This is the message cort sent Mark:
My daughter is a huge fan of your art and want the best for her always. Her Appendix ruptured and was wondering if you could help a single father who's had the worst year of his life so far. I'm am without work and very desperate to surprise my daughter. Would you by chance have a print or piece that you could sign to help ease her pain, anything you could do would be greatly appreciated and forever be in your debt. If the answer is no I totally understand so please don't hesitate to even not reply to this email. She loves the tattoo poster.
Thank you
Cort Kern
Mark responded with words of concern and support and asked if could personalize the poster with a message to her.
Here is cort's answer :
Thank you for quick response and her name is Autumn. Would you be able to sign a tattoo print for her so I could frame it? If so please do not personalize it please, she likes it that way.
Sincerely,
Cort
cort even sent Mark a picture of a girl in a hospital bed claiming it was his daughter ( Yes that picture above is the actual picture he sent). The no personalization was a huge red flag for me and Mark. So I looked through cort's facebook page going back to the middle of December. He "wins" a lot of stuff from everywhere. There was no mention of a sick child. Ok benefit of the doubt, he is private does not want to put info on the web I can understand that.
So on the night of February 9 I'm looking around Facebook and he posts the above picture of Jason Limon's Luna print saying he "won" it. But he did not post the name of the artist. I knew who it was and thought it was odd I did not hear about someone giving away the print. So I emailed Jason told him what was up and called him and we talked about what was going on. Jason never gave away one of his Luna prints anywhere. But trying to be the nice guy he is Jason did send him his Luna print, that is why cort said he "won" it on his Facebook page. Yeah Jason is pissed, so he sends cort a friend request on Facebook and amazing enough the next day the picture of the Jason's print cort "won" has been removed. The emails Jason sent cort and the responses are funny as hell. I'm trying to keep this short so I wont post them, be rest assured Jason tore him a new ass.
In the mean time that same night I'm talking to Tim Doyle and said hey have you ever gotten anything from this cort kern guy. And wow he did on January 10:
Subject A Small Favor
Message My son really loves your art prints and want the best for him always. His Appendix ruptured and was hoping you could get my son a signed print please. This has been a really rough year so far because I was laid off from my job last week and I\'m very desperate. He loves movies and Bill Murray films. Thank you
Wow now he has a son and also this message was sent from a different email address then the one he sent to Mark and Jason. He did not send Tim a picture of kid in the hospital though
After hearing this I sent out an email to many artists asking if they had heard from this cort guy. Only one had gotten an email from him which is a good thing.
He sent Dave Perillo this message:
"My daughter is a huge fan of your art and want the best for her always. Her Appendix ruptured and was wondering if you could help a single father who's had the worst year of his life so far. I'm am without work and very desperate to surprise my daughter. Would you by chance have a print or piece that you could sign to help ease her pain, anything you could do would be greatly appreciated and forever be in your debt. If the answer is no I totally understand so please don't hesitate to even not reply to this email. She really wants the Alice In Wonderland print.
Dave asked for his daughters name and he did not give it to him, so Dave knew something was wrong right there.
Here is the message cort sent Mark after he busted him:
I wanted to get this for my friends daughter and I'm without work and going through hard times. I knew I shouldn't of done this and understand the consequences in which I'm an idiot and did it.
Here is the message cort sent Jason after he was busted by Jason:
Cort: I am not trying to sell any of these and yes I'm an asshole. I've been without work for a year and a half and was laid off to and lost my job because of it. I am an asshole and I'm very sorry I will pay you back cause I do have a good heart but I've been through so much crap that I just started doing this. As far as winning your print in a contest I don't know how that was said. Jason I'm a fucking asshole yes but how much was shipping I will pay you back. And I will stop this for good now, I needed you to call me out and you did, you will not hear of me anymore and I'm going to tell my girlfriend what I've been doing and going to go get help. I just started this last week and I wanted these for myself I do not sell them.
Re: I lost my job because people got together and made up a horrible lie about me and it's given me anger and no hope plus embarrassment. Again I'm so sorry for doing this and I need to get help. I'm sorry I took this out on you I'm trying to file for bankruptcy right now but waiting for my tax return. I will compensate you however you please, just let me know. Do you have PayPal?
Sorry
Cort
I don't even know where to begin, the whole situation is just disgusting. Someone is going to pretend to have a sick child and lie to artists to get a poster. His attitude is like michael vick, he is only sorry because he got caught. The artist community is so giving when bad things happen and they are always the first ones to make a benefit poster or organize an event to help someone in need. For someone to try and take advantage of this willingness to help others is just sickening. As I talked to artists as I was gathering information for this story I found out many people do try and get stuff from them, sadly most are lying about it. That is just sad because the artist want to help but it's so hard to tell who is lying and who is not. Cort claims to have only contacted 5 artists and apologized to all of them (Don't ask, I have my ways). That is just another lie because Tim Doyle has not received anything from him.
Here is the two email address' and his home address so everyone knows, if an artist wants his full address shoot me an email
Cort Kern
Westmont, IL
Ashsmart22@msn.com
cortkern@yahoo.com
We are a relatively small community spread across the world and need to look out for each other. People like this do not belong.
Big thanks goes to Mark Arminski for figuring out this guy was full of shit. Also to Jason Limon, Tim Doyle and Dave Perillo for adding more details for the story. All of this can be proven with emails and screen shots documenting the whole sorry affair. If any artist has anything to add please feel free to contact me, email is in the top right column.
UPDATE #1 In the first of what I'm sure will be many updates to this evolving story. One of the artists over at GIGPOSTERS found the picture of the woman in the hospital bed HERE on Flickr. I tried looking for it but did not glad someone did.
UPDATE #2 Looks like he took his Facebook page down now. His Twitter account is suspended as well
UPDATE #3 2-17 His facebook is back but the name is Kern Cort now. The fifth artist came forward and left a comment, it is David Soukup. Someone over in the thread on Gigposters posted this comment from another contest he entered for the movie Horrible Bosses.
Cort Kern My boss was a prick so I put water on the floor and fell and got a large sum of money. Now I'm over weight,single and I win contests online and sell the products on Amazon and EBay for large sums of money. Thank you a-hole bosses!
UPDATE #4 2-29 Esao Andrews the artist was also contacted by him asking for prints for a sick son. Someone from a band posted this over on Gigposters
My band received this email today:So it looks like he is still at it.
From: Cort Kern cortkern@yahoo.com
"I'm a huge fan and noticed you were coming to Chicago in April 2012. I really want to see you live but I'm without work as of last week. It's a real tragedy that this happened to me but is there any chance you might have a contest for tickets or a guest list I could get on for myself and my GF. I know this is a lot to ask but I'm hoping honesty here can pull through for me and I'd hate to miss your live show. The VIP thing sounds so cool.
Thank you"
We are playing in Chicago in April and there are VIP tickets but it just seemed very out of left field that someone we don't know would go that much out of their way to email about guest list. I figured I'd Google his email address because the email didn't sit right with me and I ended up here.
Thanks again to everyone that has dug up info on this guy.
