Been a long time since I had word of this person on my feed. Usually I try to turn my attentions elsewhere for my own mental health, after my own negative experience. It pains me to know my case wasn't isolated, and that (if true) art misuse is continuing under this author.
I haven't read her new work and won't comment on it. I'm an artist who was privately hired by her once, and it got bad enough that I had to hire an actual lawyer to pull the emergency stop chord so to speak, and I still don’t know if all the copies of the work my art was illegally used on were destroyed or continued to be sold. I'm sharing this for community safety, so others can make an informed choice before engaging with this creator.
The reason I’m going to share this full story is actually to avoid mischaracterisation of any party. I actually worry that vague-posting could end up more harmful than just disclosing what actually happened. I will ask people to please not exaggerate or misquote anything below. I have no interest in being further misrepresented and frankly the account doesn’t need exaggeration, it’s bad enough. I take no joy in re-living the hurt or pointing fingers but I also don’t want others to end up subject to the same treatment I faced, which is, again, the only reason I’m sharing.
My documentation of everything below is extensive, formally organised and legally recorded text exchanges and I wouldn't post screenshots publicly unless I felt forced to for my own safety.
In Sep 2023 I ran a small writing-improvement server where fanfic was encouraged as practice. This author was proud of a fic she'd made and wanted to share it free on a fanfiction site. She commissioned me to draw two artworks for it in 2023. I agreed on the condition that, per my TOS (which I give to every client I work with), the work would be for non-commercial use only unless otherwise agreed. For the record I would never sell the commercial rights to fanart due to the legal issues it would cause. I never looked into it in detail before I had to, but as soon as I had to quickly learned it wasn’t even an option. The second piece, which is the one this all involved was completed Aug 2024.
By Sep 2024 I learned it had already been printed on a physical book cover by the author without my consent. The info was framed to me as "I printed a copy for you," to be handed over in person, which made me too uncomfortable to push back hard. But I did ask what the purpose of the printing was (told: friends and family only), how many copies existed (told: exactly 8, by name and to who), and I set a boundary that I wanted to be kept in the loop if ever a second print was considered. She agreed and added, two people had also offered to pay at cost ("$8 a copy plus shipping”). Being an artist I know what it's like to have friends who want to support you, so I gave the benefit of the doubt and said that was fine so long as it stayed non-commercial.
I was never notified of print numbers after this.
By Jan 2025 she asked if she could list the books on Etsy:
"They're still going to people I know as agreed at no profit, it's just easier to have them there so I can keep track of shipping... but it does mean they're listed. Is that okay with you?"
I said no: "We agreed to no commercial sales of the piece with the commission agreement... taking someone's word for an official listing not being for profit is not a thing I can track."
She replied: "That's why I asked! Yeah that is totally fine. It's no problem, I won't do it."
eBy April 2025 she tagged me in an Instagram story showing more than 8 copies stacked up. I guess this is where I really started digging further. I found an earlier public post from Oct 9, 2024:
"I now have a very limited number of no-profit hard copies available! Send me a DM if interested."
It felt like a slap in the face. I asked a childhood friend to privately enquire about buying a copy — not someone in her "friends and family” circle, both to see if she was selling on the sly, and, to know if she would notify me. She didn’t. She built a private Etsy listing for the request: $15 alone, $25 for two books, $46.33 shipping, $71.33 total. (I saved the page while it was live). She never notified me. I had also seen another instagram post of her tabling at BroadwayCon so had a separate childhood friend ask about that. She confirmed to them that she’d sold the book with my cover art there and would at more cons in future if numbers did well. Again I was never notified.
I confronted her directly about the instagram post with more than 8 books (I wanted to give a space for her to come clean). At first she made me feel stupid for asking, told me the photo was old, then she admitted a second printing had occurred.
Her: "This [photo] is from January… Sorry I didn't tell you I should have. I did a reprint for the people who already had it," claiming it was to fix typos and that she just planned on "trading them out with the people who have them.” and instead the first run was a ‘galley’ run. I wanted to know why she didn’t tell me, and I wanted her to tell me, herself, what was going on. I never disclosed that I already knew about the Etsy and con sales, and she never came clean. Instead she offered $500 for full unrestricted commercial rights to the art, or the alternative of destroying all copies (which I suspected would be back-played).
I didn't feel safe continuing to work with her, and $500 wasn't worth the risk to my professional name, nor did I want any part of trouble with the ALW estate if things escalated. This art was not designed for public sale.
I declined in writing, stating I couldn’t accept, and citing the repeated TOS breaches. I issued a fine ($499) for the TOS breaches, which, a fine pretty is standard professional practice for art misuse — but added a good faith clause of: if paid, I wouldn't require destruction of existing copies. No further copies could be made, and future distribution would have to stick to the original friends-and-family-only terms (no money exchanged at all). If she said no, I would accept her ‘destruction of all copies’ and ask proof.
Her reply instead was: "I don't agree with your assessment of the situation, and neither acknowledge breach of contract nor appreciate the language that you have used toward me... Please do not contact me again - I consider your continued escalating demands to be harassment."
She blocked me on every social media platform within the hour.
I had no idea how many copies were in circulation and no guarantee that anything would stop. She never agreed to destroy stock.
Later that same month I learned she was spreading rumours, telling people I was extorting her, which was defamation I wasn't willing to let spread, especially as it seemed to be going hand in hand with blocks and unfollows. For the record, I am a professional artist working in the film industry full time, so my social medias are all public facing, and stuff like that isn't inconsequential. I pride myself on my professionalism and was not about to get roped into highschool style gossip drama with woman 10 years my senior.
That's when I brought in a lawyer: to formally get the artwork removed from all use, and to stop the defamation. Even with formal evidence presented, she drew things out, questions, and never admitted nor resolved. My legal team drew up a settlement agreement for her to sign (an advised line in the sand). She countered with her own heavily revised version instead (not without the occasional curt comment or unsubstantiated claim in email chains). Her offers asked for rights she'd already proven she'd abuse, at amounts below what it would even cost to legally actualise — so I'd have come out further in the red even by accepting them. This was all costing me money (she was representing herself). I asked for an amount that didn't even cover the full financial damage. She never replied, never signed anything. I got my art off her socials. That's it. I have no evidence she ever destroyed the remaining stock.
I stopped chasing it. It was obviously deliberate stalling at my expense, and I got seriously ill shortly after, developing a serious autoimmune condition I still haven't fully recovered from. I don’t doubt it was exacerbated by the stress of all of this.
I guess this is a cautionary tale. I've sat on it a long time, but I'd rather warn other artists than let this happen to someone else a third time. I conduct my business differently now because of this. Firmer and with less investment in social niceties even with ‘friends’ because of this experience. It was the underhandedness that hurt the most.
If you have a copy of All Vows with my art on it, please destroy it. Its existence is a breach of my copyright. I won’t speak for the fic’s quality (I can’t anyway. I only read the summaries of scenes I was hired to). Just the art which was mine and is not even a good painting. So much anxiety went into it from the tension building in our "friendship" at the time. The Hebrew I was specifically instructed to write on it, I learned later, isn’t even correct. My only hope is that it wasn’t offensive which I questioned repeatedly. I’ve left the art up on my end for timestamp purposes only.
And a final note; do NOT confront or harass any individual mentioned. Don’t fuel the fire, especially since the social media drama hydra so easily grows more heads. It will only do more harm. Please just be aware, make your own informed decisions for yourselves and move on. The world is hard enough lately for everyone as it is.
prguitarman
origamiaround
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blakekathryn
