Commercial art

good morning. i was thinking of what to post and i haven't had much time to think about art and other matters because of tidbits of social activity (5 birthdays coming up soon and one wedding i don't even have a dress for yet). but i was catching up on my artforum reading and i found this:

hirst to open retail store

for six years, the british artist damien hirst was an owner of the Pharmacy, a london restaurant with decor that included hirst's butterfly paintings, glass-fronted medicine cabinets, aspirin-shaped bar stools, and matchboxes illustrated with surgical tools. now he is trying his hand in the retail arena, reports carol vogel in the new york times. hirst signed a ten-year lease last week for a space at the southern end of marylebone high street in central london, where his shop is to open in late spring. "it will be eclectic enough for art lovers but also appeal to a wider audience," said hugh allan, a director of Other Criteria, hirst's publishing company. in addition to selling inexpensive items like t-shirts, posters, and postcards, the shop will offer objects by hirst and other artists. allan said he planned to show pieces by michael joo, thomas scheibitz, gary hume, and the artist team tim noble and sue webster. naturally, hirst's creations will be front and center. among them will be Happy Head, a fifty-thousand-dollar painted plastic skull; a two-thousand-dollar roll of wallpaper decorated with hirst's signature brightly colored pills; and an eighteen-karat gold bracelet with different types of pills as charms, for five hundred thousand dollars.

don't people think he's pushing it a little bit? there's a brazilian artist, romero britto, that is criticized because he's too comercial and his paintings (and now products as well, teacups, t-shirts, posters... u name it) are "cute" at its best. romero britto has a gallery as well called "britto central" and all it does is show HIS work. so... what is the difference between damien hirst and romero britto? i feel betrayed (not sure that's the right word) by hirst because in my head he used to be an artist...