<p>Previously I've written about people who have influenced me (let's not get into whether Midge counts as people--I'm talking about Will Barnet and Rhoda), now let's talk about people who appear to be under the hypnotic effects of me...</p>
<p>Rather, let's get down to it and talk about something that's really just so uncool--the little trolls of the folk art world that feed off of other people's work. </p>
<p>I received this email yesterday--</p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">"Dear Laurie,</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">As a big fan of your work and as someone who has bought your paintings, I want to bring to your attention (if you haven't noticed already) there is an artist out there who sells on Ebay and on Etsy who is blatantly copying your work and making a VERY good living at it. There are pieces of your work she seems to have copied including colors and format. I can't abide the fact that she is doing it and if I were you I would sue her for copyright infringement. The name she sells under is XXXXXXX in both places. I would be furious if I were you. She has taken your main character with her dark hair and facial characteristics as well as the body type. I had never seen tyour style before until I saw your work and you were selling on Ebay long before this person started. She seems to have started on Ebay when you stopped. Please check into it. I love your work and your original vision and to have someone take it whole hog and just steal, steal steal is a criminal act that should be stopped if not punished. I wrote her once and told her she was infringing on your art but she never said a word and kept on going.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">Best to you. I still follow your art on your web site, your blog and earth angels. I'm an artist too and seeing this done makes me stay off the internet with my stuff.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="color: #336699;">One of your paintings has a place of honor next to my fireplace in the living room. I still enjoy the ones I bought from you."</span></em></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">This isn't the first time I've heard about this particular troll--she's been stealing my designs for years and apparently thinks nothing is wrong with what she's doing...</span></p>
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okay, stop...I started this post over a year ago after receiving yet another letter from a not-happy collector but decided against posting it and instead contacted the other "artist" and warned against how lousy doing this not only makes me and my collectors feel but also it's just not good for our art community--(I'm thinking of the somewhat small contemporary folk art community in particular). I feel the situation improved.
But still I do keep a file I call the "Hall of Shame" and it clearly shows when my designs and copyrights have been violated. It's really unfortunate--when I look at it I get a stomach ache--I wonder how it affects the trolls psychically as well as physically.
So I'm still not going to say anything more because quite honestly I think plenty has been said already, but y'know, what goes around does come around and it's just not fun now is it.
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