As as artist of 12 years I have watched the world change, priorities change, cost of living crisis rejuggle the art world.
Covid leading to the influx of artist and creators flooding the scene to make sure they can put food on the table.
When I entered the artistic scene 12 years ago, I never could have imagined the impact I would have had. I never would have thought so many people would not only relate to my work but the amount of dishonest people who profited used me for exposure and stole my artwork.
Don’t get me wrong, the positive side of me bringing grief and loss to the worldwide web in such an impactful way is my passion it’s what I believe in and as an artist I would love to be a legacy that I leave behind.
People don’t realise it but when you buy those little resin pictures of the woman and her dog or the family shorts that you can personalise online. That originally was my artwork that was bespoke to me the intellectual property rights belong to me.
But what happened? Over five years ago print on demand became heightened. People were opening companies using my artwork using my intellectual property rights and taking full advantage gaining millions millions of pounds in profits.. I spent many months and funds that I didn’t have on having these companies taken down only for the companies to shut themselves down and open up in a new name so that I couldn’t do anything about it.
After five years of fighting, I admitted defeat and I opened up my intellectual property rights so that anyone could use them. So when you go on Etsy, you’ll be able to see many of these affordable artworks but they won’t have the feeling that I had when I created them. It was something by giving it up that I thought I could move forward and adapt my style so that something like this wouldn’t happen again.
I’ve never seen grief and pet loss hit the market so materialistic they that I can’t deny it makes me mad. Sure, I’m a hypocrite. I earn money off of grief. But I feel it I do it for a reason and trust me when I tell you if I could do it for free and you could have a painting consistently every day for the rest of your life and I would be financially stable I’d give it for free.. but is my trade and pet loss is a passion.
I’ve opened up a community online where people feel welcome now to open up on their journeys of grief and I’m so happy about that depending on how genuine they are.
But this latest arrival of Artificial Intelligence has hit different.
Not just me, but everyone. Like I said being in the industry for 12 years, I’ve seen it fluctuate..
I don’t think a lot of people realise that being an artist is probably one of the only jobs that we work consistently without being paid. We can put in a 70 hour week but without a sale, we haven’t made a single penny, and we can’t pay our bills..
With the latest AI apps, generators and features people are able to take an image from an online source and put it into a generator to make their own version of the artwork. This seems harmless but here’s where it gets complicated.
If an artist has a piece of artwork that they are trying to sell, they put it online to display it for everyone to see, an individual can take that image they can regenerate it so that they can personalise it themselves. They can use it online to gain likes and followers or they can simply resell it as their own.
I’m not gonna bore you with the ins and outs of intellectual properties and copyright laws but as a collective way as artists are spending the majority of our time trying to have these companies these people these pages taken down online.
The other downside of this. Nobody is buying real art.
Not because they don’t want to, but they can’t afford it so they go for the very very very very cheap alternative. I get it I do understand.
But it’s like a dagger in the heart for us. When our work is devalued we are devalued.. we paint through our feelings our emotions our journeys our experiences. Our heart is on the sleeve of the entire world, for it to be shut out.
I’ve seen five artists around me shut their businesses after 10 years of being successful because of the current climate, but most of all because people don’t want to buy their work anymore because they can ‘do it themselves’
No, I don’t know if you’re aware a banana duct taped to the wall just sold for £6.2 million at the Sotheby’s auction in London a couple of weeks ago. People may laugh and not appreciate this, but do you know what? that’s the value of that piece of art. Because of the story behind it. Because of the message the artist was putting across. And it made it a value.
So what am I trying to say here? I don’t know. If you see AI generated images online from these ridiculous grief pages, trust me when I tell you they’re not allowed to help you. They’re there to use you.
Support artist if you love their work, just by sharing it just by liking it just by commenting on the post.
And if you do happen to collect there or make a purchase your supplying gas and electric you’re paying their rent you’re putting food on the table. Just know that you’re appreciated.
I always go back to my favourite artist on this whole planet Vincent van Gogh. Do you hear any sold one painting? And that was to his brother.. his brother funded everything for him because he couldn’t afford to live. He would often skip meals so that he could buy art supplies. People told him his art was rubbish, but he could still continued to paint.
I don’t particularly like all of his paintings, but I fell in love with him and his story. I can see the beauty and the pain in his paintings and that’s what you see in art.
So the moral of the story guys is this AI will be around forever your favourite artist won’t. Tell them you appreciate them before they’re dead.
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