This lecture came right after I discovered multiple websites selling knock offs of one of my trademarked designs, I saw an author posting text from Visual Chronicles as her own on a blog, a client asked me if I could design something similar to another artist's copy of one of my prints, and after spotting copies of my art created by my friends for sale on etsy. What a week! I didn't recall any of my art school teachers preparing me for that whopper when I was about to graduate. The only thing I remember my teachers telling me about copying was not to do it. I am pretty sure we all got that lesson beginning in kindergarten and heard eyes on your own paper for the next decade (at least). That rule didn't apply to only art class, it was in all classes from English to math.
So, I told the students the truth~
If you let Life inspire you, you will never run out of ideas. People who haven't let their own lives inspire them will borrow yours especially if your life makes money. Often it will be your friend who is suddenly out of work and wants to try being an artist and thinks you won't notice or care when he or she makes art strikingly similar to yours. It happens to all of us. Saying DON'T COPY is pointless. They never see it as copying and always have an excuse ready. Just begin by knowing that if you put art into the world, someone will copy it. That's it, plain and simple.
Have you ever copied art? I have. You have to really study it and figure out what colors the artist used and what papers they used and then you have to look at your own canvas and figure out what goes where. You're all ok, she painted this blue and that red and she put this piece of paper there and you're looking back and forth between the original art and your blank canvas and suddenly you're out of breath because it's hard! It's not like creating a piece of art that involves any sort of self expression or storytelling. Instead of being a stress-reliever it's a stress inducer. What would normally flow freely from the Life that inspired it is choppy and clunky and weird and it took 7 intense hours. Instead of using techniques to convey your mood-o-the-moment or to create a unique symbol for yourself, you are trying to fit yourself into another artist's moment and symbol. The result may be ok, but it is never authentic. When confronted, the Copy Cat will say she didn't copy it, she created art that just happened to look like yours. And probably after figuring out how you created yours she thinks she mastered the arts. That is how Lifeless Copy Cats think. They are not thinking about you or how you might feel when they are looking back and forth trying to figure out where to put that last bit of dripping paint. They are thinking you made money off your art, maybe they can, too. That's what we call a Scam Artist!
Knowing the thought process of the Scam Artist doesn't make it less of a shock when you see copies of your art floating around the internet or on store shelves. You still feel sick to your stomach and full of wonder. Why wouldn't they think I'd see THAT?! Like I don't know my own stuff?! And then you'll be so pissed and hurt that you will blog about it and someone will say at least your art is good enough to be copied, you should be flattered and then you'll dive head first into a tub of frosting while listening to Erasure sing about Respect.
Dear artists, I don't know the trick to making that part of the job any easier to deal with. If it were easy and you could deal with that part without feeling anything you would be a boring, Lifeless artist. Having emotion is how you know you are still alive. And as long as you're alive you'll always have ideas. Some jobs come with office gossips, ours comes with Copy Cat Bitches and clothes forever stained with paint and glue. It's a hazard of the job. It's not a reason to quit creating, ever. Get your feelings out and move on to your next masterpiece while keeping your sense of humor. Hey, make friends with lawyers. They don't have time to make art and you'll always need one.
Public Service Announcement: If you aren't sure how to be inspired by your own Life or you are about to copy someone's art, STOP! We take the fear out of art and self-expression with our books Visual Chronicles and Journal Revolution. Both are available in my etsy shop.
Visit Linda Woods Artworks for prints on canvas, paper, or wood for all size spaces and budgets.
