Sooo… I had many wonderful posts prepared for this blog, and a monthly Art Drop scheduled, with all kinds of pretty art to be shown. But now I’m not.
Being a veteran of the art licensing world, I remember, about ten years ago, when a group of artists actually travelled to China and destroyed displays of their stolen art that the Chinese were claiming as their own and using to make money from, without credit or recompense to the artists.
I was also the Trademark Paralegal at Taser who spent several years changing ‘Taser’ to ‘Axon’ across the globe, and fighting ZTE’s and others’ use of ‘Axon,’ etc.
I am quite sensitive to the notion of IP theft. This website is locked down from everywhere but the US, not only because I don’t sell/ship to anywhere outside the US, but also because I am not interested in fighting for my copyrights in other countries.
As artists, we love it when others appreciate our work, but it can also easily fall into the wrong hands. This is why I am not on Instagram, and also why I took my art down from Facebook. Thank God I don’t need daily money from my art.
My site was planned to be a happy little escapade, blogging to share fun and beauty, but now, due to the advent of AI art theft programs, I am going dark.
That AI art thieves are sweeping and swiping artists’ work, claiming “all rights reserved,” and even having the audacity and full blown intent to attempt copyrighting “their” works is just beyond the pale.
My older works will remain in the Portfolio section of this site as an example of my aesthetic, but all current and future works, which are more geared towards licensing, will be behind a password-protected page.
I have worked too long and too hard to have my work stolen by opportunists.