Just posted this on the "Online Artists Guild" forum. It seems the post I put up a couple of days ago regarding two artists who I thought were copying Duane Keiser's work a little too closely struck a chord with people out there. Before I copy the forum post I made, I need to apologize to John Finnegan, one of the artists I linked to in that post. While there were 2 pictures that I saw that day that, to my mind, were reminiscent of Keiser's work, most of Mr. Finnegan's work is not like that at all. I was wrong to put him in the middle of all this.
Anyway, here's the post:
Hello, everyone. I'm the author of the original post and wanted to add to this discussion.
First off, the original post:
"I'm not going to say that Duane Keiser is the guy who came up with the postcard-size painting, and I'm not going to say that he's the one who came up with idea of selling art on the web. For those of you are unfamiliar with his site, Keiser paints a postcard-size painting a day and posts it on eBay. Last year he posted them on his blog and sold them for $100 a piece. His pieces now sell anywhere from a little over a hundred dollars to several hundred dollars. I think a number of people can look at his site and hope that they can do the same thing with their own work. But the mimicry I see in these sites, I think, is carrying things just a little bit too far. Subject matter, technique, style, even web site design (though, to be fair, they may be working a template) all seem to mirror Duane Keiser's work. Click the links to decide for yourself."
You all will note that I start the discussion off by saying that Mr. Keiser didn't come up with postcard painting and didn't come up with the idea of selling art on the web. I also made no reference to the idea of creating a painting a day having started with Mr. Keiser. I did not give Mr. Keiser credit for having started any of those things because I was well aware that he didn't. I think the part of this discussion that focuses on this is off the point of the original post and credits me with, or implies that I hold, ideas that I did not express.
The idea that I did express was that the paintings themselves were mirroring Mr. Keiser's work. Frankly, I do have a problem with that and yes, there's not much to be done about it. But I have no problem calling things as I see them and drawing attention to the paintings and the artists who created them and letting people judge for themselves.
You'll note also that I said this:
"I think a number of people can look at his site and hope that they can do the same thing with their own work."
What I meant here, and I realize that I did not say this explicitly, was that I would think that more people out there would indeed copy the idea behind the website and come up with their own versions of the "Painting a Day" idea and use it, steal it if you will, to keep themselves afloat and prosper as artists using their own work, in their own style, speaking in their own voice.
Some points that I think need clearing up:
I am not a friend of Duane Keiser. I have never met him. I am just an admirer of his work.I am not an artist.
Despite what the title of this post says, I did not accuse anyone of plagiarism. I did say that the mimicry I saw "carr[ied] things just a little bit too far." There's still a long way to go to get from what I said to the accusation of plagiarism. Mimicry and plagiarism are two different things. My beef was with the mimicry. I saw no evidence on either site of actual plagiarism and did not say that I did.
I was wrong to lump John Finnegan's work in with all this. While there are similarities in a couple of pieces that are on his site, most of them are not. I will be updating the original post to reflect this shortly after I post this reply to this forum.
Here's a link to the discussion thread. Here's a link to the forum itself. You'll need to register before you can read anything, it seems.
