Are You A Copy Cat?
As we celebrate our independence with family and friends I have a question for you. Are you a Copy Cat? And if you are, is it wrong? What about plagiarism?
We returned from a wonderful 2017 American Association of Woodturners Symposium last week and on the drive back from Kansas City to Atlanta we had time to discuss various interactions each of us had with attendees and other vendors. As we inspected the Instant Gallery, we were able to admire many of the pieces and the extraordinary workmanship it took to create them. At this point in our career is it also pretty easy to recognize a particular person’s style; Dick Sing’s birdhouses, Mike Mahoney’s nested bowl set, Nick Agar’s textured sunburst airbrushed bowls and wall hangings, and so on.
We overheard someone remarking with an air of contempt “Gee, I know who they copied,” when they saw a piece with a similar style to a well-known artist by someone else. I have heard this discussion all my career; “be original, don’t copy, that’s plagiarism”. In the early days I was paralyzed by what others would think if my work was even similar to someone I might not even know. As I thought about this I remembered some teaching from my instruction manual, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
When is it plagiarism? There are certain artists I admire greatly and I strive to be able to do what they do, not because I want to usurp their fame, but because the work is either very beautiful or because it is technically challenging. I always tell folks who my inspiration was for a particular style of work or who influenced me. Plagiarism takes place when one artist claims to have discovered or invented a style completely on their own when someone else has clearly been doing it for some time before. It is possible that two like-minded individuals can come up with a very similar style and look at the same time completely independent of each other because it happens in industry all of the time. When a group of individuals are given the same set of data, two or more will often come up with a similar conclusion or design.
I was at a large event in Utah several years ago demonstrating my chatter tool tops patterned after Bonnie Klein’s taken from her book. Guess who was at the same event and made her way directly in front of me? As Bonnie leaned over to inspect my work, I acknowledged again that she was my inspiration to the crowd and handed Bonnie a copy of her book to autograph! We all had a good laugh and I have an autographed book for my collection.
We all learn by imitating other artist's work. How many pleasing bowl shapes are there? How many pen designs could there be? You make colored spinning tops, so do thousands of other turners and they have since Methuselah was a little boy. After you have a firm grasp on a particular style, try putting your own twist on it. Then it becomes your design, your style, it carries your fingerprints. Never feel bad about making a piece just like someone else has made. Acknowledge where you got the idea and that boosts the previous artist’s reputation.
The bottom line is this, take inspiration from other artists and make things similar to what they make. Don’t feel bad, but also be quick to give the original artist credit for their inspiration. If you are doing this on a commercial basis, different rules apply, but that is another discussion for another day. Happy Independence Day because wherever you go, there you are.
Here is my inspiration for this message:
Eccl 1:9 NIV What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
1Thess 4:11 NIV “and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you”
2Tim 2:15 NIV
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
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