Sad art
This morning I got a group chat message from Lana (ig: Levitann_ + tumblr: Levitann) that she had been accused of plagiarism. First of all, I remain of the opinion that the conflict should be discussed and resolved by the parties. Especially when the parties are two adult people. However, the conflict became a publicly common knowledge and all the social media users started confronting her with unpleasant commentaries. It hurts me to see that the place where my friend feels comfortable, tries to do her best and shares her work with people has become a place for bullying. And all of that happens while my friend is going through hundreds of personal difficulties, which one way or another affect her creativity.
It goes without saying that my friend tried to get in contact with the artist who had accused her of plagiarism. But the dialoge led to nothing and all that has become clear is the artist's lack of desire to listen and simply even try to understand. Sveta was insulted, called untalented, ugly and the list goes on and on (I cannot vouch that it is true, but truly hope it is not).
Lana as well as other artists uses other references for her works (what she was trying to explain when contacting the artist and even attached some of them to the message). Her messages never went personal and she apologized repeatedly for the similarities in their works (even though she did not have to do that, because your apologies make you automatically guilty). She even deleted her artwork that was similar to the artist's.
I am not trying to excuse Lana and I am also very sympathetic towards the artist who felt like he had been copied. The Internet contains plenty of artworks and our brains process a lot of information each day. It would be unwise to deny the influence a good deal of things have on us. We get inspiration from a lot of things, which Lana mentioned as well. We grow up and change, just as our hair color and clothing style do. And as the years went by her drawing style was changing too (I have been a witness of it since our junior years at school). Her style did not change at once, it has been a result of her work. And I do not deny that their styles look similar in some way. But there are even people looking similar to each other. All of that can really be just a coinsidence because I believe that Lana would never copy someone's work intentionally (I understand it is not enough of a supporting argument for you). However, at the moment it is even more than just a plagiarism problem, because everything could have been resolved PEACEFULLY! But in the end, we all suffer emotionally from this.
One day I found an art that looked exactly like hers but she just told me that it was quite possible because we all use the same references.
So what conclusion can we come to?
Lana's account has been blocked on tumblr (she did not have as much followers as the other artist, but her art got many views). On several occasions her work were chosen to be a theme wallpaper on the main page. Tumblr posted her artwork in twitter plenty of times. Before getting blocked she received some messages but was not able to read them after all. She has lost a platform for her growth as an artist.
The artist that accused Lana of plagiarism blocked her.
Users that supported that artist started mindlessly bullying Lana in the comments. In the morning my friend was miserable when she saw all those mean comments, not understanding what was happening.
There is a risk of losing her followers on IG as well, because people started writing comments and mentioning her in their stories while she has been working nothing but hard to achieve what she has today.
Stress.
Please be careful and be able to stand up for yourself. I know that all the communities where people create something with their hands, face situations like this which is not new. I am just scared for my friend. She would never hurt a fly and rarely comes to anyone with her worries. Also, she cares about art community and knows about problems of plagiarism. Her messages to us showed us how concerned she was and how IMPORTANT all of this is. I am not saying that we musn't stand for ourselves and our hard work. In contrast, I am saying that we MUST! But before starting a witchhunt, please check all the fact and make sure you would not do harm. And only after that take actions.
Make love, not war Protect your art. Protect your mental helth.
Thanks for your attention.
(if u interesting, u can also check out information by the nicknames in the search. i don’t wanna use nickname of artist. it’s not even problem of plagiarism. it’s about our kindness and mentality. how do we act when it goes wrong. we do it bad. so don’t. be human.)