I posted something similar to this earlier today ---behind a question about Conyers Cherry Blossom Festival and decided I needed to post this by itself. Hope I'm putting this in the right page. Thanks again and here goes another version of what I posted:
What do you think of an artist who copies other artists' work --same media and often participates in the same juried shows? I've encountered someone who is doing this to more than one of us and wanted to know if any of you have encountered this and how you would handle it.
I believe we may be influenced by others and one may question the originality of one's idea but I think it's wrong to directly copy another person's work. I believe each person should find some way to make it "his" or "her" own work in some way. It's true that in times past, people studied under a master and was required to copy the master's work, but the copy cats should remember--it's the masters who went down in history, not the imitators.
Replies
I guess the next question to follow would be: if you had access to both the original and the copied piece, would you publicly post both so that people could see that the "artist" is copying works? "Call them out", so to speak?
I started a thread on a related topic:
http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/competitors-in-my-booth...
Long story short, one of my designs was copied. The person has won two best of shows with the copies. Adding insult to injury; she was wearing my original design and telling people she had made it.
What a low-life! I'm sorry that happened to you, Kim. The way I'm figuring it, it'll come back to bite them in the ass one day.
I think it has started to already. And, I can't believe how many people have had this happen to them as well. It's such a shame.
Unfortunately the art/craft fest circuit breeds this animal. For some reason people think because your selling in a tent laws don't apply. Most would never go into a gallery/shop to do the same. I lived in Hawaii for ten years and I can tell you that they have the most copy thieves in the world. Many times I had to stop people from coming into my tent because they were only there to see what they could steal. When I opened my gallery it all stopped. It's sad but just like everything else in life, you have to make things just alittle unconfortable to stop anything.
Totally agree with everything you said Randy. Because you promote your wares in a street environment, people think your not a professional artist/crafter. If I could afford a gallery, customers perception would change in an instant.
Here's one post I cannot ignore, having been victim to both theft of intellectual property and copyright infringement by a desperate unethical competitor trying (unsuccessfully) to steal a long-term client; the theft gone unpunished only due to the unaffordable $30,000 no-cap retainer my (my?) lawyers required for a jury trial. That's only one of a whole book of examples.
Plagiarist is a downplayed overly polite word. They are thieves who cannot make a living on the merits of their own creativity and integrity because they have neither, pure and simple.
Show director and artist weighing in here.
As an artist, I, also, have seen my work copied and stolen, appearing elsewhere under another artist's name. It's infuriating, and yet, it seems impossible to make them stop.
I try to keep finding new ways to do what I do, to grow and change, so that those who copy cannot possibly keep up. I NEVER give anyone more than a vague description of how I do my digital collage, but with jewelry, it's not so simple. I use a lot of vintage items in my jewelry, as well as unusual findings and things that I have adulterated to make them work, but most customers won't really notice that the other guy is using new, made-in-China foil glass beads instead of the vintage Murano I'm using.
As a show director, you bet I want to know if someone is copying your work and claiming it as his or her own. BUT, before I can act, I need to be absolutely positive that your claim is valid. I had an artist come to me complaining that another artist had copied her work and claimed the designs were her own, when in fact, it was the copier who was making the complaint. Unfortunately for her, I could tell the difference. She has since been banned from any show I ever coordinate, whether an art fair or a local gallery crawl.
I don't know that I've really added anything, but I do know and feel your frustration with the situation.
Last Saturday, I did my first show of the season in Washington, DC. In the afternoon, a lady came up to my booth with a camera and lifted it up and was ready to take a shot at my jewelry table. I went up to her and asked 'who was she with'? She said she was a photography student. I said no problem, but she could not shoot the glass jewelry or functional glass, she could only photograph my table that had a variety of slumped bottles. She said OK, but within a minute, left my booth. My belief was that she was going to photograph my work for someone else. If you spot this kind of person, great. It is most difficult to prevent another artist, at the same show from borrowing ideas.
Last year I had the same problem with another jeweler. It was so obvious that others were calling me at home to inform me of the situation. She is now copying someone else. I confronted her but she is still not creating her own work. I felt totally violated and depressed but had to move on. There was just enough slight differences that copyright probably wouldn't work. I did consult a lawyer.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next