I just witnessed a public hanging . What ? Where? Isn't this what you are thinking ? Surely they don't exist in the year 2009 ? They do. First , let me give credit where credit is due . I owe the honor of these words and this hanging to Suzi Blu . Today she hung a " baby goddess" in a public forum with plenty of people to watch . Let me explain ...I know there is alot of copyright infringement going on and that there is alot of frustrated artists. I have seen Illustrators have their artwork stolen and sold as digital images for stampers.I agree that credit should be given to the artist for their work . I love and support my fellow artist. I have paid for classes with Suzi Blu and I loved that she would say " You have a right to make art " , "You are safe", and lots of other loving phrases . A lady had posted a you tube video on art journaling and she had used images in it off of the Internet and some of the images belonged to Suzi Blu
She did not claim the artwork as her own .She stated in the video that she had gotten the images off of the internet . It was a video for teaching purposes , she was not receiving money .
So here is where the lady is led up to the gallows ... Suzi Blu posted the situation on her blog and in her post she called the lady" old" accusing her of having" no pride" and called her art "inauthentic shit art " . (do you see see the noose being placed around the lady's neck?) .Suzi claims that" she doesn't have time to send the lady a private email " and that "this is a situation that needs to be dealt with in public" , " A situation that affects us all ". This is the part where I agree. This affected me . Deeply to my core . I do not want to be the silent onlooker watching in the crowd , as the crowd cheers the public hanging of an innocent person . My "voice" may be "Tiny" in comparison to Suzi blu but it is a voice of compassion . I was taught by Suzi that "no art is original ,that we are not so unique that it is not something that hasn't been done before ". I do not believe that the intent of this woman was to steal or hurt anyone but her voice was not heard over the rioting crowd who visited the hanging through a link on suzi's blog and threw even more hurt onto the situation. I know what it feels like to be vulnerable and how we need to be supported in order to feel safe to share our art and I am thankful for the people who do share and put their selves out there. I personally do not feel comfortable putting my "Art " in the hands of a teacher who would march me to the gallow for making a mistake or march me in front of a crowd calling my art "Inauthentic art shit" and trying me publicly and watching as I am beaten by the crowd in the name of her "Authenticity" .
I followed that link on Suzi blu's blog . I was too late. The lady artist had closed her youtube account and removed her blog . The public hanging was complete . I watched an artist die.
Wow! How sad!!!
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with Suzi in principle, I'm not real proud of how she handled the situation. If she had time to post on her blog, she had time to email the woman. I've seen others handle this situation with much more grace.
ReplyDeleteOf course the lady in question needed to be spoken to, but a teacher's job is to educate and since this was a 'first offence' just speaking to the person about why it was not cool and how to rectify the situation should have been enough. I can only imagine how hurt and upset this poor woman must be feeling. I sincerely hope it does not put her off teaching or making art in the future.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jackie for being brave enough to speak up for what you believe in.
Oh no Jackie that is horrible. I'm so sad that the lady felt she needed to stop doing her blog. Horrible.
ReplyDeleteI have so many artists work all over my blog and like I explained in a post I did sometime in February of 09 entitled art heist I got 90% of my pictures from the internet while I was on chemo and just kept taking pictures I liked and not even knowing where I got them or whose they are.
If I know the artist I always put their name, if I don't most people who read my blog know that if they know the name they say it on my blog and then I post it up.
Yikes.
Love Renee xoxo
You can ask me anything dear Jackie.
ReplyDeleteBest describes it here Jackie:
http://circlingmyhead.blogspot.com/2008/11/200th-blog-post.html
Love Renee xoxo
Thank you so much sweet Jackie. I love how you talk about your aunt because I can see the love every time you do.
ReplyDeleteYes, we all do want our stories to be told.
Love Renee xoxoxo
Thank you for speaking up. I was digusted by what Suzi did to that poor woman and the way she handled the situation. She had an opportunity to turn it into a teaching moment and she chose public humiliation instead.
ReplyDeleteWhat disgusts me more is that she can be such a hypocrite.
Do you think she and Mara got permission from Tascha before doing the Little Red and Wolfie class? Wolfie is a complete rip off of Tascha's wolf softie from the cover of STUFFED as seen here: www.stampinton.com/html/stuffed_w09.html
Hi Jackie!
ReplyDeleteWow...what an interesting post! Thank you so much for sharing and speaking you mind, I can totally see where you're coming from. Its so sad that this lady has now stopped blogging... I just hope she doesnt stop creating because of it.
PS. In answer to your question over on my blog: There's no particular reason I don't drive. Its simply because I keep putting it off all the time, can bear the thought of a driving test and I'm just too darn lazy!!! It's still at the top of my "to do" lists though :-))
Jackie, thank you for posting this! I couldn't agree more. I started watching SB on Ebay years ago when she was new, sweet and kind and I thought, innocent. I don't know what has happened.......she went from inspiring and encouraging people straight to scaring people like a school yard bully.
ReplyDeleteI was too late to see the youtube video myself and have no clue who the person is but I would love to show her some support.
Did you notice in the video where SB is going on and on about giving artists credit where credit is due? Not once, that I could hear or see, did she mention who's music was playing in the background. Maybe I missed it, but I was looking and didn't catch it. Wonder how that musician would feel?
Anyway, I do like SB's work but I would never dare take a class from her.
Thanks for your visit and I'm so glad I stopped by here too!
Darla
Sweet friend I hope that you are having a wonderful day today.
ReplyDeleteLife is good.
Love Renee xoxo
Jackie I am so excited, it is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI own to of Julie-Ann's paintings and I mean, they are incredible.
Thanks for the excitement.
Love Renee xoxo
I'm so impressed by this post. Honesty and truth. You spoke how you felt about this and didn't feel the need to keep your thoughts quiet. What a sad situation indeed. Public humiliation? To what end?
ReplyDeleteAlways best to follow the polite rules..speak to the offender first and then if nothing happens, make a public statement about how you feel about it and wish it wasn't so.
From what you've said, it would behoove Ms. Suzi to make sure her own backyard is clean before she starts throwing anything towards anyone else. People make mistakes. If the woman said it wasn't her own art she wasn't being dishonest and trying to make a profit. Asking permission first is a good idea, but in this case, did this have to be done?
Where is the respect?
I loved your last sentence.
Although I agree with the underlining principal of not stealing another's art, I do agree with you and others that this was handled VERY poorly. It takes alot for ANY artist...even beginners, to find the courage to begin. it only takes one instance like this to crush MULTIPLE artists at the same time.
ReplyDeleteDear Jackie I hope you have a wonderful and scary day.
ReplyDeleteLove Renee xoxo
I have almost a constant back and forth argument in my head as to what is copyright infringement and what isn't. I haven't done the research and someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I was always under the impression that the original use for copyrighting something was to make sure that no one else made money off of your work or idea. But it seems to have morphed into this big, scary, ugly monster that is threatening to kill all ideas and art for good.
ReplyDeleteIn one of my graphic design classes in college we debated this issue and it was a toss up whether it would be copyright infringement if you used an image in a company presentation where it would only be shown to employees and would not be used to make money.
We also have some ballooning friends who used to have a Mr. Potatohead balloon. They had it taken apart and made a new one because they didn't want to pay royalties to the Mr. Potatohead empire anymore. It seems like Mr. Potatohead should have been paying them. I mean, that was free advertisement, right?
wow! I have had situations where I have been copied and even to the point where women have purchsed my book and taught their classes from my books. This was a very successful and known artist. It hurts. I emailed her privately. I have also had people take my classes and then teach them. It gets confusing because I want people to learn but to use what I teach and turn around and teach it is very mind boggling. Then I think there is nothing original so let it go. But I did not mention any of this for public hangings. It just hurts. I think with the Internet being so available that pretty soon we will not know who created the originals. so I just let it go again and try not to focus on the negative. It also forces me to grow and try to do something new and different. I am so sorry that an artist died!!!
ReplyDeleteJackie this is so sad. I hope this lady does keep creating art and comes back to blogging.
ReplyDeleteWe all need encouragement and she sounds like she needed it so much.
Copyright infringement as caused so much fuss.
I was at this end once also. My blogging friends helped me to stay an so pleased I did.
What I wish for this lady is to come right back and keep going with her art.
keep away from using Suzi's art, which needed permission first.
To show the people she is a beautiful being who deserves to create art and have friends here.
Hugs!
Julie