Born from frustration, making something that makes me happy

written on 19 march 2022 and sent as a newsletter

From Copyright Drama to Floral Collage Series

Born from frustration, I made something that makes me happy.

I was about to release two new floral prints with Lieke (meisje in het wit), when something very frustrating happened. I received a message from a photographer that I should take the prints down, as 'the copyright was hers’. This led into a very nasty DM battle on Instagram with me, Lieke and the photographer and a bad aftertaste. Plus the beginning of this floral collage series.

The reason she believed the copyright was hers is because I based my floral paintings on her photographs. Now, since you’re subscribed to my newsletter I expect you now know a bit about my work and that I don’t paint very photorealistically. This claim of hers is wrong, even if I didn’t change composition, colour. material and form. And of course I did. 

Now, since I’m an artist myself I immediately began doubting myself, what if this is something that’s very frustrating for photographers? What if I only saw this from my own point of view and actually there’s something I don’t know? So the next day, I called a photographer friend whoms work get stolen a lot and asked her. She told me to stop worrying and spend my energy elsewhere because this was a ridiculous claim and the resemblance to her photographs could even be a coincidence.

I did however choose to take the prints down. They now had a bad aftertaste even though I believe I did nothing wrong. I chose to indeed take my energy elsewhere and create something even better - not a print, but a series of originals. 

I started by making two collages and realized I had so much more material and it might actually be nice to create a whole series. And so the ‘copies’ started coming. 

In the end I made nine different collages, all different but also definitely a series. They should match, but have different suprising details to set them apart. I also wanted to make more so I could offer them at a more affordable price point. So I could share the ‘copies’ with more of you. 

They are available by sending an email.

Always direct your energy to something positive. 

- Roxy