Fakers and G R A C E

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
Herman Melville

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season....I have had a busy couple of weeks, and in addition to all of the regular things I have on my checklist this time of year, I am also grappling with an internal struggle of how to handle it when other designers outright copy my work.

Since these designs come from my soul, I find it not only disheartening but a complete violation of who I am. These works are personal to me, and to find someone looking at a picture and trying to replicate my pieces exactly as I make them offends me greatly.

I should also note that ALL of my work and the content that is used to describe them is copyrighted. That means I could get a lawyer and send a nasty letter because what you are doing is not only immoral but illegal!

I can tell who it is because they leave an indellible mark everytime they visit my Etsy shop or my Web site. Their visits to both have increased exponentially the past few months--to the point where they show up as a top 10 visitor on both sites in Google Analytics!

I know that part of the artistic way is to borrow ideas and concepts from others. But where true artists are different is that they take those concepts and make them their own.

I have always found imposters to be a pet peeve. And when they are imposters on my own work, they are even more so! I wish I could call that person out, but perhaps when or if they ever come across this they will know who they are. But I bet--given that they find nothing wrong with taking others' artistic designs and claiming them as their own--that they won't recognize it is them I am writing about anyway.

And if you think I'm just throwing stones, think again. It's one thing to copy a circle or a component, and entirely another when you are copying something that is very specific to what I do. You say there are no original ideas? In your world, there must not be.

I have learned a lot about grace this year--to live with dignity and respect, and to expect it from others. It's not always an easy task, particularly as an artist. I work hard to create original work, from which I try to help feed my family and grow my business.

I am trying to rise about these latest events and not let them bother me. But they have, and this is why I am getting it off my chest here.

So hey, violating artist: if you read this post someday, reconsider your path. Make yours an authentic one. Make yours original. Make yours real.