Art, Design and Craft in a Copyrighted World

It used to be simple. As an artist you had an idea, you would sit down and start researching it. You could go to the library, the zoo, the park, the seaside, the art gallery or where ever you could find a visual representation of what you where about to draw. Then you would spend hours sketching, making yourself familiar with the shapes until the first draft of your drawing or painting would take form.

This is how I learned to do art 18 years ago. But then along came the internet, that was like the library, zoo, seaside, gallery etc. combined. In 2006 it was a fantastic resource to use in researching for example, how to draw a hare. It broadened the scope of things you could add into your art work. And at first it was innocent and there was no question of copyright, as long as you did not trace one image from another and call it your own.

Eight years later I take my pencils out again and start drawing and designing. But there is another thing I find myself doing, that I did not even consider during my previous stints of artistic expression. I now have to look through Google's image search at other peoples art work, not for the purpose of copying, but to ensure that my idea is original. There is something very soul destroying when you have to change your design, even slightly so that it does not look like it is based on someone elses work.

When did it come to this? There are only so many ways you can draw an ant so eventually in a world population of 7 billion you are going to accidentally create the exact same image purely by coincidence. The fear of being criminalized over artistic expression and the stigma attached is surely harmful to the soul of the artist and the creative flow.  

Art has always been, like science, invention,  language, culture and music based on what the previous generations accomplished. Artists learned by copying their masters and eventually evolved to have their own styles of expression. It was not criminal and it was not frowned upon. So why do we expect the current generation of artists to be completely original?  It is like telling an engineer to create an engine, without letting him use the invention of fire, smelting steel and a screw driver.

Thinking about this... Google "Kaj Stenvall" an oxymoron in the world of copyright, trademark and art. He is one of my favourite artists from my home country of Finland. Had he started painting in the 21st century, I doubt he would have been allowed to continue his career for long.