http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_(art) This is the Source of the following excerpt:

“After seeing a poster of their work in a bookstore, Caulfield claimed ownership of the image and while Warhol was the author of the successful silk screens, he settled out of court, giving Caulfield a royalty for future use of the image as well as two of the paintings.”

Explanation: Caulfield was a photographer…Warhol took Caulfield’s photo of flowers & used it to make a silkscreened series of prints…They were exhibited & sold in a famous gallery…The photographer saw a poster of the prints in a bookstore & sued Warhol…The excerpt shows how this type of APPROPRIATION (which is often a nice euphemistic word for THEFT) can be settled out of court…The artist who appropriated (or stole) gives the original artist a cut of the profits…

I write this for all the artists out there who are tracing from photographs they have found on the web…The right thing to do is to give a modelling fee to the model(I have added this touch as my own thought) & a cut of the profits to the artist who took the picture, as well as a cut to the original artist if in fact it is a photo of a painting or sculpture or other work of art & the photo was not taken by the creator of the ACTUAL real work of art…

For example, If A makes a painting of his wife, he pays his wife a modelling fee…Then he gets B to take a professional picture of it & upload it to the web…C sees the photo of the painting of A’s wife & makes his own painting using the wife’s likeness & adds a few extra things to the work…C then posts that photo to his own website himself…A sees C’s website & recognizes his wife…A sues C…C emails A & offers a deal…The deal is that C will give A a portion of the profits on the sale of C’s new painting, plus he will give A two of his other original paintings…A accepts…A gives a portion of those earnings that C gives him, to his wife, for the repeated use of her image in C’s work…A also gives B, the professional photographer a portion of those earnings, for the appropriation (theft) of his photo, which is really what C used to copy from…Alternatively, A can retain the profits for himself & give one of C’s paintings to B & one of C’s painting to his wife…

No lawyers were harmed in the course of the settlement…Everyone is slightly richer…A, B & C, & A’s wife are now friends…

Alternatively, lawyers can be harmed & everyone becomes enemies…However, the art world is clearer because there is much less repetition in art…But is repetition  good?

This has been a post about Appropriation in the art world…Sometimes known as theft or copying…Sometimes known as Art Appreciation, since apparently copying is some form of flattery in some places…Imprinting…Mimicking…Learning? I’m not crazy about appropriation, but it happens…Sometimes you just have to let it go…

Ok, next topic: http://www.jewelrymakingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2012/06/06/a-new-approach-to-wire-jewelry-making-wire-weaving-with-mary-hettmansperger.aspx Or maybe on a related note…Been thinking about weaving with copper solder wire to make the blue catfish form for the sculpture of Elliot the blue catfish who lives at Bass pro Shop in Vaughan Mills Mall…Went to sculptsite.com for something else…Got an idea from someone that turned out to be not what I needed but got me thinking…Wrong ideas get it all working up there…With mind in motion, thought about the plan…Looked up if anyone else was weaving with solder wire…No…But found this lady who weaves with wire which is close…Will have to experiment for myself…(Robert Downing, the artist, RIP, told me my art was experimental…What did he know? Ok, he was a professor at U of T & taught me about fractals, a ‘geometric concept in islamic art'(that’s a book title by the way), sometimes called tessellations, like Escher did…You know the swans repeating? It’s a math thing…)