Artists Using Doll Likenesses without Crediting [Mijn Schatje discussion]

Jumping into this, as I've been following the discussion for days but haven't had time to post.

I first saw Schatje's work in an issue of Hi-Fructose a while ago and fell in love with her art. It was so strange and contemplative... It inspired me to try things with my own artwork I would have never thought possible. I admired her and wanted to be able to make art as beautiful as hers.
Now, after realizing that all this time she has been nothing more than a smoke-and-mirrors act, I feel so let down. I really thought she had a talent but she's been leeching off the hard work of others to make profit... I'm ashamed. She disgusts me. How disheartening to learn that someone who used to be one of my greatest artistic idols is a fraud.

It makes me furious!

 

absolutelysweetamy don't let it get you down. Just use the images as inspiration and learn from them. Become better than her (as an artist and as a person).

 

Her name isn't Schatje, it's Hendrickx. Schatje just means something like precious or treasure, it's her artist name.

 

Well I didn't say we could know. We can assume what her style is from what she's shown in the few things she hasn't been able to copy but I was mearly offing a different point of view from those (myself included) saying she has no talent outside of tracing and collage.
Her cartoony and rubbery "style" could be her true style or it really could simply be her lack of talent born from only ever tracing.
If all she's done is trace and has no concept of how things should look because she's only ever traced (or maybe all of the tracing has taken over any skill she once had?) then she really may lack the eye and skill to make that small portion of arm or head fit the rest of what she stole.

When you trace an image you can get small points that you'd have to look at negative space and what not were you free handing. But in tracing you don't have to look. They just show up if you're tracing well. There is no real eye for much of anything required. Which is really sad when you can make so much money off of it if you fool the right people.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to put words in your mouth . I agree that it's sad that she's been able to fool the right people. And I also think it's sad that the people who do have the talent aren't always able to impress the right people. In a perfect world, perhaps the magazines that published her work and discussed at length the amazing faces of her drawings would go back and publish the original photos of the BJD and comment at length about how unbelievably beautiful all of those are and how talented their sculptors, face up artists and photographers are. Apart from restitution they are certainly owed that.

 

An LJ community for this issue? I was thinking someone should make an LJ community about this, so that all BJD/NON-BJD LJ'ers could have a centeral hub to gather, and keep information and links organized--plus any updates. But I wanted to find out, if there was any interest, first.

 

I'm shaking in silent fury the more I read the thread about this art thief. >.<+++

Say, are there rules in myspace.com against posting these kinds of works or even having an art thief as one of the members (sorry, I'm not a user of myspace and I'm not familiar with it )? I was able to visit her website (http://www.myspace.com/mijnschatje) and it is still functioning.

 

Yes, this has been discussed and the artist companies I think have been or will be notified that they can take action in this way (a PM has been sent to the person incharge of contacting the companies and artists). Please note, ONLY the artists or orginal copyright holders can file claims on My Space and Facebook against her.

 

There's nothing to stop her being a member of MySpace. As for posting her "art" there, it's the responsibility of those whose copyright she's infringed to issue a DMCA cease and desist against her and notify MySpace, identifying the infringing pictures, at which point MySpace will remove the pictures - but that doesn't stop her having an account there.

 

Did someone see the thing she posted about it on the 3rd of June?
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=199299&blogId=492734792
Just to point out shes written something else *nods*

 

Yes, this has been discussed as well. ^_^ Many find it very untastefull and dont believe what she has written is true.

 

Heh no worries I didn't think you were. Simply one of those oh so awesome understanding things. Yay internets!
It would be wonderful for everyone who printed misrepresented works to go out and print things about what was behind it, the dolls and the works that were put into those dolls.
Or at least print something about a combination of the dolls and what was done with the pictures of them, a little over view of what they are and in a none attacking fashion say why what Mijn did was wrong. At the least I think that should be corrected and the truth stated. She doesn't need to be attacked for it. Well. Maybe she does in some peoples minds but not in any sort of magazine IMO

 

Yup. The internet is a faceless monster.

I don't think she needs to be attacked for it, either. Hopefully things will be made right through legal channels and in a civil manner. I think that is the responsiblity of any magazine who published her work-- they helped perpetrate her (alleged) fraud by promoting her work. They should do something to fix things. I would think that to keep their reputations they probably will.

I do think people need to be made aware of exactly what it is she did, and why it is problematic. After looking through the comments in support of her on some blogs, it seems that a lot of people are conflating regular, off-the-shelf dolls with BJD, and not seeing the problem with her photos having exactly the same lips and eyebrows as say, Blastmilk's unoa. They are not getting that each doll is a customized moveable sculpture, that each artist painted the doll in a specific way unlike, say a Barbie or run of the mill porcelain doll or what have you. A magazine article pointing out the original pictures, and maybe even the unpainted heads that the artists started with would do a lot to show people the scope of her theft.

 

I've gotten a couple of replies. None of the people I contacted were aware of that the DMCA was, and were shocked to learn that it could be used to block their site (at least from searches in the US). So the simple information letter is working, already.

 

Actually the DMCA violations cover the PHOTO, not the doll sculpt or the faceup. Even people ignorant of BJDs will "get" that she has stolen and reused carefully composed, posed, and shot original photos. You may never get them to believe that a customized doll is art (the art doll community has been fighting that for years) but photo as art is recognized even by the man in the street.

 

While this is true... actually what they refuse to understand is that taking something like a photograph or image is theft (a copyright violation). They just say stuff like but everyone does it or it doesn't hurt anyone or its just the internet. Many fans don't see anything wrong with tracing. This is the REAL problem.

 

AHHH WTF, Mijn just posted this (clarifying - she posted this on facebook, and this is all she posted about it at the moment):

Mijn Schatje &#9829; Leeke ! thank you

Ugg, I can not express my disgust that she is getting away with any of this. I am sure it is just too difficult for them to pursue legal action. I wonder if this is like what happened with DIM (her twisting things to pretend they were fine with her) or if they really are.
*Edit* I have nothing against Leeke, just they way all this way handled by her makes it infuriating that she will be able to still go on with what she is doing. If they said it was okay that is just justifying her actions. She probably twisted the situation around with them to allow her to use their images (if her comment means they are). She does come off as very polite and sweet, but diving further into the situation shows quite the opposite.. And with her tendency to twist things this can give her a lot to work with to deceive people into thinking she is in the right.

 

Honestly, what can we say? Did Leeke give her the go ahead? If Leeke gave her permission, than there is not much more we can do. Although, it does lack a bit of integrity imho, but I respect their decisions. Also, if she is now crediting the companies, that is a step in right direction (be it a very small one )

 

Wow, I don't know what to say. But I have my doubts that this is any different than before.

 

Yes, but she has also lied on her site. I mean, she made it seem like oh. no. I may have used an image of someone's doll. And it may have been wrong... oh how did I do that??? I don't know english... oh silly me (that not her quote, but the feeling I get from her) - then says that she contacted them. We know that Denny contacted her, right?