Artists Using Doll Likenesses without Crediting [Mijn Schatje discussion]

Oh, and why not spam here facebook? I am so pissed right now that I could do that. We really should. Upload the proof photos and tag them with her and such.

 

what the.. how can she do this type of things? as an artist i know.. stealing is just a plain disgrace. They can sue her for copyright issues!

 

Just come back to this debate...so... nothing has been done by the companies after over a year of this going on?

 

What I find interesting and incredibly frustrating is the fact that the sellers of her art, many who know what she is doing, don't seem to care...and continue to sell her "art".

 

Unbelieveable gall!
MS held a "cute contest" featuring a doll face NOT created by her. (this example from Radiotrash's evidence?) And she's allowing people to download the image to create masks and become "a part of my cute army" http://mijnschatje.tumblr.com/
I'm gagging...

If not via legal methods, the only other recourses for the general public is information sharing and the power to NOT buy any products bearing her name.

Unfortunately, Speights and Faron in Silver Spring, Maryland USA, is currently selling 'her' jewelry. To give the business the benefit of the doubt, it may not be aware of the controversy and needs to be alerted. Anyone know about this business?

Infectious.com in San Francisco is selling laptop/netbook and ipod skins with 'her' images.

Her web page references she will have or had "a solo show at Corey Helford Gallery (L.A.) in late 2010" (actually it is in Culver City CA)...but after doing a search for current, past and future shows, MS could not be found. Perhaps her show was cancelled.

Radiotrash's original compilation of the evidence against MS is now located here.

Keep adding comments on sites that have questioned MS' integrity as an original artist. The sites are getting stale.

FYI -
The following is only a sampling of what is out there.
Artist sites:
http://www.artistaday.com/?p=4050 last reader comment May 2009
http://www.artpartnergalerie.com/mijn_schatje_.htm Parisian artist web page

Discussions (last comment date)
http://tomopop.com/bootleg-hell-the-curious-case-of-mijn-schatje-8477.phtml (Aug 2009)
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=85573192034&topic=11844 (over a year ago)
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=85573192034&topic=11843 (over a year ago)
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=85573192034&topic=11870 (over a year ago)
http://seveyn-rhine.livejournal.com/17994.html (Sep 2009)
http://another2am.com/eyecandy/?p=337 (June 2009)
http://rightsomegood.blogspot.com/2008/10/mijn-schatje.html (June 2009)
http://sparklingsilvia.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/is-mijn-schatje-a-plagiarist/ (June 2009)
http://news.deviantart.com/article/82633/ (Feb 2010)
http://www.philipbrennan.net/2010/01/25/mijn-schatje-art-thief/ (Jan 2010)

MS sites:
http://www.mijnschatje.fr/
http://www.myspace.com/mijnschatje last reader comment 3 months ago
...direct link to her gallery http://www.myspace.com/mijnschatje/photos/albums/album/0
http://marieisnotdead.free.fr/
http://www.facebook.com/mijnschatjeart?v=info

MS supporter:
http://mikephilbin.blogspot.com/2008/04/mijn-schatje.html July 2009

 

I'm a professional artist (make a living from it). I may, in some point of time, draw from my posed dolls. Maybe I'll sell the art if it turns out well and someone likes it. However, the doll/doll company will be referenced, and it will not be from a copyrighted photo that has been altered. I have spoken to artists who HAVE done this, and seem to think there's nothing wrong with it. Many of the internet generation feel that any piece of art or any photo that is available is "up for grabs". I know that I've run into people altering my art and calling it theirs. Without financial repercussions, this lady has no reason to stop what she's doing, and $$$ reasons to go on. I'm afraid that the doll companies will have to go after her.

 

She is STILL at it! Holey moley!!!!

Even if these WERE original expressions rather than the blatant ripoffs they are.....
HOW can customers, people, just GO for that milksappy, weak and vapid style of illustrations... HOW can people even consider it interesting? there is no tension, no message, no piercing grab or anything! It could be printed as wallpaper for all the emotional impact it has!
Not that I meant to insult wallpaper designers

In any event. I do credit marie with ONE thing : The ability to take something stunning, grabbing, evocative, impacting, and turning it into a (literally) flat and 2 dimensional nothing.



"My Darling" just sets such low personal standards. What a sad artistic goal to have, to be satisfied with yourself by doing this level of plagiarism and then just milking it for the $$$.

She must think so little of herself. Poor woman.
I hope one day she can move on to taking some art classes and digging inside her own self for inspiration and expression, rather than using a copy program to merely change 20% of someone else's original art

 

I am posting on this thread, because, I know everyone here obviously knows about Mijn Schatje.

Now, I was looking around and ended up finding this other person, Natalie Shau. I thought her stuff was really pretty, and then I ended up coming across one of her pieces of art, which had a Pipos cat on it. No mention of the cat.

Of course, I am not one to just jump to conclusions, because naturally, she could be someone who owns a pipos cat (I am unsure of the sculpt ^^;..) but, then I saw another post of a bunch of her art, with more faces I identified as obvious bjds, and a few of them looked a little too familiar for my comfort...like I am not sure if they are personal person's photographs, or company photos, or even her own stuff. That I do not know, because she doesn't credit any of it. If it were me, I would at least put "face inspired by a bjd in my personal collection, a (company) (sculpt)."

Anyway, I just want some input. Here are a few things of hers I came across:

The (more recent) Pipos doll (very last one in the set):
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Alice-inspired-artwork/700140

&
more dolls:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Zodiac-Rings-advertising-for-Lydia-Courteille-(2008)/683816

 

All I can holey moley that's a load of ! ... I never heard of this person nor of her so called artworks before, and am shocked to find this. During my years in the world of art I have come across people who will use references - some more heavily than others - but never have I seen direct copying such as this. I'm ashamed of this person not only as an artist and a doll collector but also as a human being. If you want to be creative fair enough, but I think the only creative thing about this person is the way she talks her way out of things...

 

A lot of this new person's stuff looks like photomanipulations directly.

I find it very amusing that much of it is done in the style MS uses.

I am going to laugh my hind end off if she begins screaming about how someone 'stole her style'. (A girl can dream, right? My schadenfreude sense is tingling.)

 

Yeah, at first I actually thought that the Natalie Shau was MS, then I came here looking to find her name, and turned out I was totally wrong about the names...
That would be totally hilarious though if MS complained about how NS (the "new" girl) is stealing her style XD

 

Oh god, not another one.

Then again, Mijn Schatje got away with it for so long, I'm not surprised that others have decided to start copying.

 

Today's definition of irony: the new chick is actually making the style something more interesting than Mijn's utterly vapid emptiness. Almost a shame it's probably not legit work in her case either.

Dangit, people (and by people I mean the people making this form of art) there are legit ways to do collage, traditional or digital. If you're going to go pro enough to do ad campaigns and produce books of your work for sale, invest in them for mercy's sake.

 

Yes, I totally agree. And the sad thing is that I legitimately like both of their artwork...if you take anything that they took and leave what is their own, would there be anything left? I am sure that in both cases, what would be left would be legitimately good, and I would probably buy from both of them. But MS is out of the question, because she has been proven guilty of theft (as far as everyone is concerned, anyway), and the new girl, I would totally buy from her, I just want to see if her name is clear or not.

 

Actually, we don't know that Ms. Shau is doing anything wrong. For all we know, it could credit the doll and doll company, and her personal photos on the back of the piece. It wouldn't be written in large print across the face! I assumed that MS's stuff was copied because it looks so much like the doll company's photos. Are you saying the new artist is using those copyrighted photos, also?

 

I made a video about this and put it on youtube so more people will know about it.
really I find this stupid and frustrating! even more since she makes money out of it!
what are they waiting for to sue her??? not just the BJD sculptor, she also copied from drawing/photography too, no?

 

No, Mijn Schatje actually stole owner photos of dolls. She was guilty of copyright theft. We don't know if that's the case here; no-one has come forward to say one of the dolls belongs to them or to claim original pics. They might be her own dolls. Right now we don't know.

Sahoma, I'd hold fire on that video if I were you. Nothing is proven right now; all we know is that she is producing work that is obviously based on BJDs - but if it's based on her own photos of her own dolls or those of friends, then there is no wrong-doing. All we have right now is a bunch of pictures that are based on BJDs. There is NO PROOF of wrongdoing as yet.

 

I thought the issue with MS was not that she used BJDs as the subject of her artwork, but that she traced photographs belonging to other people. Is there any evidence that this Shau girl is tracing other people's photos? It may just be that she is drawing/painting/photographing her own dolls. If that's the case, then I don't really see a problem. While I think it's tacky not to mention the doll's creator, it doesn't rise to the level of MS's blatant plagiarism and violations of copyright.

Of course, if someone can show that Shau's pieces are lifted from other people's photos, then she deserves a place in this thread. Until then, it's too early to condemn her.

ETA: Arkady beat me to it

 

Yeah, that's why in my original post I stated that I wasn't sure if they were even her own dolls. I was just saying that some of the photos of the characters that are obviously based on dolls look like very familiar photos to me. Now if that's just because she is a user her on DOA and i have seen her original doll photos, or if they are company photos are beyond me. I don't recall -where- I saw the photos I saw, I am just saying I saw them.

Now MS's were proven beyond all reasonable doubt, because they were proven to be the company's photos used without their permission.

I just want to know if anyone knows anything of N. Shau.

eta:
I wasn't trying to condemn Shau by posting of her on this thread; mainly because this thread's main purpose (aside from being all about MS, is that it is wrong to copy without crediting). Like I did say in my OP, I was unsure of her sources, be it hers own dolls or others, because everything I saw from her listed nothing about bjds, though she does have one print that is obviously of a bjd (not sure if the sculpt is of a real doll, but the image shows the joints).

 

well if it's the case, she should write somewhere: this is based from my or my friend's doll wich is from X site