Kruzewski on mon 6 jun 05
Hi All,
Thank you everybody who has mulled over this subject. I've been unable
to access my computer since I wrote the original email until earlier
today, so have just read all your responses. I am going to print out all
your thoughts and give them to Bev to read for herself. I think they, in
themselves, will actually help her come to terms with the situation.
Just to clarify a couple of points though, if I may. Firstly, as Rikki
said (thanks Rikki) Bev and I live in Wales, UK, so US law doesn't apply
and Russel's suggestion of acid (or ACID) was for a British situation.
Bev does teach and is happy and flattered for her students to reference
her work. She is very open about how she makes her very personal pots.
This is not a Prima dona who is secretive and non-sharing. She is, in
fact, very supportive and encouraging of anyone who wants to make in
clay and has taught students of all abilities for many years. In fact
when anyone points out that her influence can be seen in the work of
some of her former students she is always very positive about that process.
This person was not a former student of Bev's. The work was not
influenced by Bev's style, by her sources, by her methods. This person
didn't take an element of another's work and introduce it into their own
work, they copied it wholesale. Everyone who saw it, especially Bev
herself, thought it was a direct copy of Bev's pots. If I'd seen those
pots at an exhibition of Bev's I would have believed that Bev had made
them with slight modifications to the way she glazed them - because the
glaze hadn't quite the subtlety of her usual style.
Yes, this is very much in the same space and time. And these sculptural
pots are very much Bev's identity. This is why she is so upset. The more
I think about it though, the less I believe this will really hurt Bev in
the professional sense. The ceramics and art "establishment" in the UK
knows her work so well that they can not be confused as to it's origins.
I don't believe the other potter's work will reach that sort of prominence.
I do not believe she will go to law - we in Wales are still not
litigious. But I think she should confront this person, I hope she will.
I don't think it's wrong to be influenced by others and for that
influence to be echoed in one's work. In fact I think it's inevitable.
I do think it's wrong to take another's ideas and 20 years of
development, and try to pass them off as one's own.
Jacqui
North Wales
Thoughtful about the difference between influence and copying.
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