Artists Using Doll Likenesses without Crediting [Mijn Schatje discussion]

If anything, fans who don't know what she does and who haven't see any of the evidence yet, might totally be turned off. I imagine someone looking at these who had no idea of the situation saying, "Wait a minute, she just totally traced this..." Because even the cropping is the same.

 

I am so glad Leeke is looking into this!

I don't think this woman understands how the internet works-- once you've posted something, it's out there forever. You can't change your story continually and expect the previous versions to just disappear. With every new explanation she posts, she looks more and more like a pathological liar.

She could have owned up to her mistakes at the very beginning, but to do so ethically would have meant giving credit-- and restitution-- to the owners of the images and creators of the dolls. It's clear she's knew early on that she didn't have permission, and that's why she turned to images from her "friends" (or became "friends" with them after the fact), and it's why she continues to post these. But doing so doesn't excuse the theft of images she used earlier-- the images that have been used in her contracted work for Sony and Fornarina. I think it is pretty easy to see that MS's motivation for continuing to dissemble is cold, hard cash. She probably thinks that if she gives in now, her career is ruined. The sad thing is, it already is ruined. And she's made it worse with the ever changing explanations that insist she's done nothing wrong.

 

This is really the heart of the issue, I think. A formal letter of apology and removing the images, ceasing all sales of the images, and giving restitution where it was due... with the commitment not to trace copyrighted images again... that would have earned forgiveness from many people, I think. If she'd just admitted to making a big mistake and changed her ways, I probably would have respected her for being able to admit she was wrong. And I'd think it would have saved her a lot of pain and heartache in the long run. For all I know, she was buying into that "20% alteration" myth until it came to light.

It's the behavior after her tracing was revealed that really soured the whole thing for me. Lie after lie, misleading emails and messages, and outright defending actions that have been pointed out as unethical and illegal... that is really the heart of the matter here.

 

i just realized/noticed, she is STILL saying the doll pictures belong to her friend "barbara" in the myspace photos.

 

I'm still curious about what Audrey Kawasaki is going to do. That's a huge artist to rip off.

 

"This Baha is the custom work of © Tanya, the talented dolls makeup artist and clothes designer of www.tanyastyle.com"

No. This Baha is a beautiful sculpt by Pipos but the makeup was done by tanyastyle.
Just saying their names and flogging your mates websites off isn't going to please us at all! *shakes fist*
Darkrogue : I certainly agree and what DIM does considering she is still using the images.
I went to an art gallery the other day and my goodness what did I see? The Jellyfish by Leeke! I alerted the art gallery person and she immediately changed the sign saying "Drawn from Scratch" to "Copied" *giggles*

 

okay... does she know this Barbara Canepa... and does Barbara know what going on?

Has there been any response?

 

Copied. *Giggles* Now that is wonderful news. And even better "publicity" for anyone else who visits and sees it.

 

Huh...I find this really interesting. I've just been reading over alot of whats in this thread and looking at the proof of Mijn 's theivery.
I can see the obvious use of doll pictures...and the other examples where small aspects of Kawasaki's works were incorporated into her works.
They're really kind of frankenstiened images. So what I'm wondering I guess...is peoples opinions on the term 'appropriation' Although it can be argued, and can cause a scandal.... and naturally works alot better if you're upfront and honest about what you do. But provided you change something like seven things within an image it can be considered an appropriated source of inspiration rather then outright theft.....Atleast that's what my profs were always spouting in Arts school.

 

She's behaving like such a worm. Her responses don't show any worry or regret at all...As far as she's concerned, this is probably just an annoyance which will go away if she maintains the lies.

It's a rumour which has many forms. It's just not true unfortunately.

 

Koitten, check out this post: http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4824457&postcount=881

 

Just a note:

The blogger "Robbergirl" at this site http://femalepersuasion.blogspot.com who seems to be one of Mijn's big fans was rather flaming about my informative note. She took down one image at Mijn's request (probably one of the DIM ones) but was adamant about continuing to post if she wanted to. Those of you who have contacts with the companies and/or those of you whose private pictures were stolen will want to keep an eye on her and be prepared to issue DMCA takedown orders as needed.

 

Her post seems to be gone now-I wonder if it was involuntary . She also put up this little spiel here .

 

dA news post has like 29 favs so that's good. Again, if anyone hasn't fav'd it yet, please do so. I wish they'd realize the post title links to the site, I keep getting comments asking for proof or whatever. Click the link, how hard is it xD.

And of course there was one nasty "Omg not effing dolls again @_@" post... I'm so tired of that mentality. I don't care if she stole pictures of jock straps, it's still plagiarism and it's still wrong. Ugh.

 

Harassment. lol.
I don't think anyone has been harassing Mijn. But that was seriously out of no where... Oh well.

 

This statement!!!

I think that collage, altered art, found object art are legitimate forms of expression. The artist's contribution is the arrangement, the feeling and the visual impact created.

When you make this kind of art, people do not assume that you personally manufactured each piece of a collage yourself. It becomes more difficult to discern collage in the digital age because it is fairly easy to find 'parts' for your collage by surfing the internet; however, as Mijn Schatje is discovering, it is also easy for people to find your sources.

I've seen people bring up Andy Warhol in this discussion (this internet-wide discussion, not just here on DoA); however, I've noticed that very few mention the part about him getting sued over using other people's art (Andy Warhol did get into legal trouble, and settled those cases after the fact (Campbell's Soup, Patricia Caulfield).

There is source material for digital collage out there (copy free public domain art, which Mijn has used), stock photos (to clarify, stock photos are photos that you may license to use for a price... stock photos are NOT free clip art), and lots of other images that can be used with permission of the copyright holder (who also has the right to know how exactly you will be using that image).

Mijn Schatje should admit that she is a digital collage artist instead of leading others to believe that she painted those pictures from a blank screen, regardless of how many vectors she uses. She can continue doing her same type of design without taking and claiming someone else's artwork as her own. Being a digital collage artist will not bring her the artistic fame and acclaim that she has received for being an original digital painter, but it is honest.

 

Larien,

just faved it. I had a lot of trouble pulling up the page yesterday-- maybe the site was having trouble?

for everyone who might have missed the original link

http://news.deviantart.com/article/82633/

 

Thank you! I was looking for it, but I must have missed it in the shuffle! *faves*

 

Thanks, guys. Yeah it wasn't working for me yesterday, either. Must have had a site issue.

I don't always catch the comments left on it, too, so if anyone wants to reply to any of them (especially the nasty ones xD) feel free.

 

I know this isn't quite on topic, but I get so very very very frustrated every time a non-doll collector feels the need to go around saying rude things on Deviantart about dolls as if their art forms are so much more relevant then ours. It'd be like me going up to an landscape painter and saying "God, I hate landscape paintings! Stop posting your paintings on this website, they don't belong here!" If that happened, people would pitch a fit! But since it's dolls, they feel they have the right to do so, and it pisses me off. (not that I hate landscape paintings, I just chose something to use as an example.)