Exploring Art 31: It's about the money. Or not...

You know, this week has been pretty horrible for art theft for me. I think the hardest part about this week is not that people stole my work, it is the reaction to being busted.

I've had everything flung out from 'you're not a lawyer, don't tell me what I can and can't do', to 'if you were a REAL artist you wouldn't care about the money'. I've had people call me a bitch and a whore for asking them to remove my work. I've had people state that I am too rude in telling them to remove the stolen work, and that I should appreciate that they gave me 'free publicity'. I've had people tell me they will now be  boycotting my work, and will tell everyone what a shitty person I am and to stay away from my work unless I let them continue to use my work without compensation.

To be honest? I was very close to giving up this weekend. I ended up taking a break and curling up in a hot bath and just crying for a few hours over the weekend. It's painful, it hurts. My pride is wounded, my soul feels like it's bleeding and I just don't understand. I really don't understand it. So I just... my last journal was more logical and 'this is the way it is', but I just want to talk about how I feel right now.

So let me just address the things said to me one at a time. This is how I personally feel, this doesn't apply to every artist out there. But this is me. This is what's in my head, okay? I'll start with the easy one.

You're not a lawyer.

You're right. I'm not a lawyer. I have spent over 20 years of my life in this industry though, and in that time I've had to walk the fine line of knowing when inspiration is too far. When someone has a case of just.. simultaneous inspiration, and when I should step up and say 'this is wrong'. In my business I've had to review contracts and other legal documents regarding copyright law and the rights of each painting I am hired to do. For every publisher I worked for I had to go through and learn what was and was not allowed with their intellectual property, and how much of my work in it would still remain MY intellectual property. I am coming from a position of education, not ignorance. Now if you feel I am in the wrong, you are more than welcome to hire a lawyer and get their opinion on the matter. There are many IP attorneys who specialize in intellectual property AND offer free consultations. Please google one, and simply ask "Is what I am doing illegal". I do believe that I can safely say their response will be 'as your attorney I cannot advise you to take actions that will be illegal. Such as theft of I.P." Kind of like they won't advise you to steal a car, even if they know of loopholes to get you off the hook.

Free Publicity!

I actually greatly appreciate free publicity. This is a tricky subject though because you need to think very carefully about what you do. Many of my pieces are contracted through others, so I do not retain the full copyright for them. This means that I cannot allow others to display them *if they will profit from them*. So when it comes to free publicity and someone posting my work on their website I have to review certain things before I even ask the person to take the artwork down. 1. does it have all the appropriate copyright info on it? That's important. 2. Does it have a link back to me. This rule is flexible, but I am more lenient when they do. 3. *does the site have paid for advertising that the poster profits off of*. This is REALLY important. 4. Does the site offer the piece as downloadable content/free for use/etc. This is because many of the sites that post my work offer it as wallpapers, to be printed at home, etc. This is not a use I will tolerate. 5. Did the site somehow snag a high res copy of my work and post THAT up? Because it has happened before (someone stole one of my flashdrives and posted my print files once, while that person was shut down, those particular print files sometimes make reappearances). And finally 6. Does this site promote something I am strongly against. I am pro gay rights. I am anti quite a few things. Will this conflict with the statement my art makes? Is it endorsing something I am vehemently against?

Some people say 'well if you don't want it stolen, don't show it'. I'd like to say.. I actually do that. In the case of pieces that I literally can't display except for my personal portfolio, I don't even post online on my personal website, because I absolutely cannot risk that it will be stolen and my contract be violated. But know what that means? Guys? Guys that means there are HUNDREDS of pieces of artwork I have done that *you will never see*... because I cannot share my personal portfolio. Do you realize this directly affects you all? There are beautiful pieces that I am so very, very, very proud of, that I cannot share. There are incredible things I have done, in fact my very best pieces are actually a part of that select folio... and you will never see it purely because people will steal. Are you sure you want to tell me don't show my work? Is that really what you want?

You need to be nicer to me.

This is a really rough one for me. I'm the same as pretty much everyone out there. I was raised with 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.'. The problem with this way of raising people is that we've begun to empower those who want to harm us. We have equated not being nice, with being a criminal, do you realize that? How wrong is that, that someone can commit a crime, and if the objecting person is not ABSOLUTELY POLITE, the crime is now excused?

This opens the door for a very dangerous practice, of committing a crime and then baiting the victim into making a mistake, speaking their mind, or being upset so that *the crime can now be justified*. Look guys. It doesn't work that way and it should never work that way. In fact, how sick and dangerous is it that people will now deliberately harass, insult, defame and antagonize the victim of their crime *so they can get away with it*? Doesn't that frighten any of you at all? We talk a lot about rape culture, and I want to mention that now because it shows a clear demonstration of this very practice in a way that physically harms people. How many men and women have been assaulted, raped, beaten and hurt so badly.. and then shamed into keeping quiet? How many have spoken up and then instead of being protected, were then humiliated and shamed *by the people who should be protecting them* for .. being a victim? While rape and art theft are not the same thing, this tactic of humiliating and threatening the victim of either crime is the same across both situations, and is equally vile.

I noticed that if someone's car is stolen, or their house is broken into, no one goes 'oh well you shouldn't have parked your car'. The police come, they deal with the situation and they don't tell the victim 'next time don't pull your car out of your garage if you don't want it stolen'. It's just a crime they handle. No one says to the woman who's purse got yanked 'next time don't wear a purse in public', they get angry at the thief. Sometimes I think it's because of the fact that art theft is an emotionally loaded subject. Artists respond emotionally, painfully, and are hurt on a spiritual level that is hard to describe. But I object to the thought that having an emotional connection to your art means that your reaction to it being stolen invalidates the crime.

Yes of course I am emotionally vested in my artwork. Here's my question for you. Do you want a piece of art that is utterly passionless? When you go and watch artists work, is it the one who puts their heart and soul in the piece, who when they paint it is like watching god reach down and take hold of someone to express an intangible? Or do you like watching the person who says 'right, dog? K here you go. Dog drawn. That'll be five bucks."? The only way you can get the people who are touched by god, touched by the muses, who have that bit of divine magic in them, is for those people to give up everything and open themselves to whatever it is that has a hold of them at the moment. You cannot do that and NOT be emotionally vested in your work, it simply doesn't work that way. So when an artist expresses things like "I feel like my child was stolen", they are not being dramatic. They are expressing a very, very real feeling. For however long it took to do that work, they gave everything they had to it. Don't be surprised when you rouse a bear at stealing it.

If you were a real artist, you wouldn't care about the money

There's a song I listened to recently. Jessie J's song "price tag". Now obviously I'm not going to put the full song here, but the chorus is pretty simple: It's not about the money, money, money. We don't need your money, money, money. We just wanna make the world dance, Forget about the price tag.

That's how nearly every artist feels at heart. I don't paint to think about the money. When I sit down and start to draw, it's about the art. It's about what I want to express. You can tell when an artist 'sells out', and it's not because of the fact that they're accepting money for their work. It's because they aren't giving their all to the work, because they ARE thinking about the money money money the whole time.

The problem is that people mistake 'it's not about the money' with 'that means I shouldn't receive money from this'. No. It's not about the money means that we aren't making money first, we are speaking, creating, making the truth of our soul first. After that we have to break down and figure out the money *so we can survive*.

If it was about the money all the time, Sarah and I wouldn't have made the choice to stop doing commissions. The last of the sketch fest are the last pieces I will ever do at someone's behest for money. I find I block up when there is money involved at the start, when I go into a piece quantifying it's worth before I have even done it. I just want to create with the intention of making the world a better place, figuring out how to make it so that I can pay my bills, get more art supplies, and create more comes after the fact. But it's still something I have to think about. However, if it makes you feel better, let me tell you what's in my head when I think about the price tag of my work.

A. Did i cover the cost of my materials for THIS piece. Yes? Good.
B. Do I have enough to put at least half of my profits back for funding *more art*? Yes? Good. And by more art that means both doing another print of this piece and also creating something entirely different, so that needs to be around double the initial cost of the piece.
C. My kids need school clothes. That's three children (that's right guys. I have kids I'm supporting on this art), times shoes, shirts, pants, underwear, socks, etc. Will I be able to raise enough money selling consistantly to be able to buy those necessities?
D. Oh right. Rent. Will I end up making enough out of those profits to pay rent?
E. Taxes. Cause you know, I'm my own boss and at the end of the day, I have to pay taxes on what I sold.
F. Licensing. Because there are more then one licenses I have to have in order to sell, do I have enough to renew that?
G. Food would be nice.
H. Is my travel fund okay? While i make money at conventions, I have to have the money up front for airfare/hotel/food before I even get to the con. This fund has to be there because there's a chance I may not even break even at the con and I need to be able to pay my bills regardless of how well I do. These are business traveling guys, NOT vacation time. I am always working conventions I go to. I don't even go to the con for the con itself, I work it and don't go to the other panels and things.

And now thanks to this week I. Lawyer fund. Because now part of my monies has to go to an I.P. Lawyer to protect my work, since apparently I don't deserve to live.

So when I say that I need to make a profit off of my work, I can assure you I am not dreaming of get rich quick schemes or ways to bask in the lap of luxury at your expense. I am just trying to survive so I can continue to provide the world with my own unique touch.

In conclusion
Don't make me have to be a bitch. Honestly. I'm a pretty nice person in general, and tend not to get angry or upset unless I am given cause. If I am coming to you asking for you to remove my work, it is because *whatever you are doing* is infringing on my ability to run my business. It is not about you, it is not about me disliking you, being a bitch, wanting to fling my weight around or anything like that. It is that you have overstepped your bounds on what you can do with my art, and as the artist I am asking you to stop.

The fact that people have refused, have tried to justify the theft of mine and my colleague's work, now means that my bills go up because I have been told they won't stop UNLESS I get a lawyer.

I work an average of 16-18 hours a day seven days a week. That's around 500 hours a month. With sales of prints, originals, etc etc. I make about $3. 50-$4.00 an hour for that time I invest in my work. Want to talk about it's not about the money? That's what I live on guys. So when you see me make $900 off of a painting, figure that's going to last me half of a month right there, because it has to take me through the dry spells, it has to pay for my display fees, my materials for more art, and so on.

I'm not in this for the money. I'm in this for the love, and I am BARELY making the money, by working myself far more then most people work.

Yet I'm the bitch, the greedy money whore, for asking people to respect my work.

Excuse me while I roll in my pile of money.