Is this what we call art?
Have you heard of Mijn Schatje, a somewhat famous artist? Her name cropped up on DoA some time ago because her art is BJD focused but she has never given credit to the sculpts she used. Some people were like, it's reference only, who cares?
Anyhow, take a good look at the pictures linked here. She's not just referencing. Evidence would suggest she's tracing company photos or owner photos of BJDs. In some cases, it looks like she uses the original photos and does an easy auto-level, auto-colour to get the colour palettes she wants.
Now, she's claiming that she has never even heard of BJDs before used BJDs as models but has never seen any photos which look like her work and she doesn't trace at all, no sir! REALLY? At this stage, people are saying that they recognize some of the textures and patterns she uses elsewhere too.
This semi-famous artist sells her prints for $1000+ and you can find her pictures in galleries and on products that paid her for use of her images. She's been in the news and in magazines. It's only that the doll community is small that she has managed to get away with this for so long.
Spread the word!
(Though please, for the love of everything smart, don't harass Mijn Schatje through emails. Why would you give her a chance to turn this into a 'woe be me' moment?)
Edit: Clarified some facts because I was writing based on memory since the original entry was deleted (because blog owner didn't want anything to do with the 'artist' now). But hey, someone has screencaps!
Edit2:
1. Just to clarify, I am not the source of all the comparison images! Credit has to go to Tomato for putting all the links up and starting this whole thing and to Radiotrash and Demyx for doing the comparisons and overlays. All I did was cheerleading, checking out some match-ups and doing my part in spreading the word. Thanks to everyone else for spreading the word too!
2. Several companies, galleries and magazines as well as a few owners of the originals have been contacted. Check with radiotrash before you contact anymore.
3. There are many more pieces of her 'art' that are recognizably of dolls or from doll pictures. It takes time sourcing the original photos though. If you can find more that match up, that will be awesome.
Edit3: Why so many edits??
ALL OF YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO LINK, QUOTE OR POST YOUR OWN TAKE ON THIS USING THE LINKS PROVIDED! For those who want to contact official parties, you might want to write a more proper explanation and use the links I've provided.
I HAVE UPDATED THE LINK TO A SWANKIER COMPARISON WEBSITE PUT UP BY RADIOTRASH!
Sorry to some of you lovelies, but I'll have to c&p the same response to save me some time.
Edit 4: This linking thing is spreading far, which is great, except this post was very opinionated (which is the way I write on my own LJ) so I'll just fix it up now so that fans of hers don't use this as an excuse to invalidate the issue.
Anyhow, take a good look at the pictures linked here. She's not just referencing. Evidence would suggest she's tracing company photos or owner photos of BJDs. In some cases, it looks like she uses the original photos and does an easy auto-level, auto-colour to get the colour palettes she wants.
Now, she's claiming that she has never even heard of BJDs before used BJDs as models but has never seen any photos which look like her work and she doesn't trace at all, no sir! REALLY? At this stage, people are saying that they recognize some of the textures and patterns she uses elsewhere too.
This semi-famous artist sells her prints for $1000+ and you can find her pictures in galleries and on products that paid her for use of her images. She's been in the news and in magazines. It's only that the doll community is small that she has managed to get away with this for so long.
Spread the word!
(Though please, for the love of everything smart, don't harass Mijn Schatje through emails. Why would you give her a chance to turn this into a 'woe be me' moment?)
Edit: Clarified some facts because I was writing based on memory since the original entry was deleted (because blog owner didn't want anything to do with the 'artist' now). But hey, someone has screencaps!
Edit2:
1. Just to clarify, I am not the source of all the comparison images! Credit has to go to Tomato for putting all the links up and starting this whole thing and to Radiotrash and Demyx for doing the comparisons and overlays. All I did was cheerleading, checking out some match-ups and doing my part in spreading the word. Thanks to everyone else for spreading the word too!
2. Several companies, galleries and magazines as well as a few owners of the originals have been contacted. Check with radiotrash before you contact anymore.
3. There are many more pieces of her 'art' that are recognizably of dolls or from doll pictures. It takes time sourcing the original photos though. If you can find more that match up, that will be awesome.
Edit3: Why so many edits??
ALL OF YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO LINK, QUOTE OR POST YOUR OWN TAKE ON THIS USING THE LINKS PROVIDED! For those who want to contact official parties, you might want to write a more proper explanation and use the links I've provided.
I HAVE UPDATED THE LINK TO A SWANKIER COMPARISON WEBSITE PUT UP BY RADIOTRASH!
Sorry to some of you lovelies, but I'll have to c&p the same response to save me some time.
Edit 4: This linking thing is spreading far, which is great, except this post was very opinionated (which is the way I write on my own LJ) so I'll just fix it up now so that fans of hers don't use this as an excuse to invalidate the issue.