Am feeling very huffy at the moment – or perhaps it’s a little miffy…….yesterday I received an email from a gallery in Wellington declining to show my work because it was too similar to another greater Wellington region artist.  Not cool.  It’s not like I have only been painting recently – I have been painting and exhibiting, albeit in a very small  way, for 15 years.  This other artist has been painting for a few years and is HUGELY influenced/inspired by someone a number of my artist friends admire – Kelly Rae Roberts from the USA.  Read between the lines here people.

The gallery told me that they were relunctant to show my work as this self professed super star of the art work had threatened to take legal action out over another artist last year for using some of the same mixed media techniques that she used.

Hmmm – I’m all for protecting your own work but really there are a million books and courses out there showing us all how to develop techniques and how to use various materials.  This cannot be owned by any single person.  Another aspect this artist is upset about is other people using her subject matter.  You gotta be kidding me.  She is also making a claim over subjects that occur in everyday life ?!?

Anyway – it would be too easy to give up entirely or to change my work…but I won’t.  I’ve been working hard to get my dream off the ground so refuse to allow myself to be intimidated by other artists.  Plenty more galleries around…..

Thoughts?

K