At first I thought it was me just "being sensitive"...but after witnessing a particularly odd exchange between two artists recently, I realize I don't think I AM just being sensitive. It seems some artists are really, I dunno...territorial lately, or quick to get their back hairs up over imagined infractions or what they perceive to be assualts on *their turf* or seniority in the art world or something. It's really UGLY! Left me wondering, well sheesh, is it the economy doing this, making people crazy? Heavy saturation of this genre's market making competition THAT tight, or WHAT?
I won't name names or locations in this particular exchange, but a newER artist was saying admiring things of a much more established & older artist with a particular technique talent, and I guess I was moreless alarmed to see what constituted in my eyes (and apparently the eyes of others, given the responses) a verbal smackdown to the newer artist for even daring to use a similar technique in her own art---which is in no way a one-person technique--it's been around for literally AGES. Their overall syles are clearly very different. The more established artist seemed to be warning the younger artist that she already had a corner on this market, is "known" for it, and wouldn't tolerate copiers. It was pretty blatant and difficult to take her words any other way....much as I like to try to see both sides to any issue. I know many are sick and tired of copiers that run rampant...but honestly Folks...this was not a case of any blatant copying.
I think any of us recognize and abhor blatant copying when we see it...but this really was not a case of that. Just made me kind of sad that an older artist who had the opportunity to be a role model in this situation and live up to the praise & kudos she'd received and graciously accept a compliment, seemed to take it as a threat to her business and choose to issue warnings, want to be known as the "only one" who uses that particular technique. Pretty unreasonable, IMO! Newer Artist went slinking off, obviously sorry she'd ever opened her mouth, and I and others felt very badly for her, stuck up for her. I don't even want to be around a place like that. There is clearly a pecking order, according to this one particular artist anyway, and she sure wants to keep it that way. Follow-up to the smackdown revealed her talking down about the newer artist's talent (compared to her own) to another artist...for all to see! It was like a double-whammy making it impossible to see past, think you were mistaken in what you read, or forgive the first whammy! It revealed her very ugly side with a side dish of "desperate" and I lost a whole lot of respect for her in very short order!
Anyway...made me sad and wondering what the heck some art circles have come to, that some artists have to act so snotty and cruel and unsupportive of up and comers. Are they really A THREAT? I must admit, I've overheard conversations where some better-knowns have expressed concern over those whom they perceive as newer competition hot on their tails....but truly, if anyone is genuinely gifted with talent and their own identity, do they REALLY have anything to worry about??? Surely there isn't a finite number of licensing deals and opportunities to be had....
I really hope it isn't getting as ugly ALL OVER out there as what I saw. Maybe this older artist was just having a Mean-Ass Chick Day. Regardless...it's a great way to shoot yourself in the foot in the eyes of those who previously admired you or *thought* they wanted to aspire to have a career like yours. If success makes some that snotty-ass full-of-themselves with license to be mean, rude, and stomp on others' dreams...I sure don't ever want that brand of success..... Completely uncalled for.
Can't help but wonder how that older artist started out, whom SHE looked up to and admired at one time? Or was she born already-an-elitist-success? Pffft! How quickly some forget their own first steps on the road to success, and how selfish of them to think it only belongs to "them".
Sorry for the long vent, but that was a whole lot of *UGLY* I hope to never see again...yet if memory serves me correctly, I've seen it in different forms before; I've just tried to forget those, too! :::sigh::: Seriously Folks...aren't we all BETTER than that? Can't we keep our own bars sets higher? Perhaps if we all *think* a little kinder, we'll actually *be* a little kinder and the kind of example we all look up to ourselves.
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