Can you imagine Sunny’s smile getting even bigger? It did when he read the comments from ArtistatExit0. Sunny was adamant that what he had done was legitimate. Being inspired by fellow artists is common practice. I agree with him on this one. Of course you are inspired by what you see… that is simply called life. But there is a very fine line between appropriation of ideas and a rip-off.
“Why should I, as an artist, produce new work and put my sweat and life-blood into it, when the next person can simply come along and copy my ideas?” I asked.
“It will never be the same anyway” Sunny retorted. “And you obviously have never heard the saying ‘imitation is the highest form of flattery’!”
What ensued was a very long, yet infertile discussion. We were going nowhere in a hurry. Our opinions were just too different. Words like ‘generation gap’ were mentioned and ‘all-for-free-internet-society’. None of the other Dedes wanted to participate, let alone take sides. Finally Sunny suggested we should ask our readers about their opinion.
So, what do you think? Can Sunny be proud of his achievement or was it a blatant attempt to falsely take credit?
dedepuppets 
Well, if proper acknowledgement is made, its alright.
Otherwise its a pure form of cheating.
After all Sunny did not make any references to the work which inspired him; so there is a problem there. Taking inspiration from someone is valid for a learner if he shows a courtesy towards the teacher.
I agree with what you have said. Sunny seems to be of the opinion that the original artist never would have found out. However, he is a follower of our blog, so fat chance it would have stayed undetected. I think the easiest is really to admit, that it was a take on the work of another artist. it doesn’t hurt!
Schwierig, ich frag mich das bei abstrakter Malerei auch oft….
ich mach mir mehr Sorgen ums Internet. Da scheint es Gang und Gäbe zu sein einfach zu kopieren, imitieren.
Fällt doch eh niemandem auf…
I’m glad to see Sunny’s smile…that means more to me than whether or not I received proper credit. From what I can see…he has evolved his own working methods. The Styrofoam looks like it has been carved and shaped which is not my practice. I think of what I do as a collaboration with nature. How the river shapes the foam is an important aspect of the work even if that comes across only to me. My materials are gathered only from this single park and come from the river which acts as a metaphor of the journey we all take. Sunny may see something different in the back of a dumpster than I would? In this case, I don’t feel my “intellectual copyright” has been infringed upon. Surely, some one else in the world is doing a similar thing? I do,however, like the free internet and the free exchange of ideas.
Thanks for pointing this out. This is was my main concern, that he didn’t understand the original concept – the ‘river polish’ of the styrofoam. However, in his defense, he can not go to a river, being not water proof, so he had to adapt to his environment and go through the jumbo bin at the house. You are right there is a bit of his own thinking in it, and I know he wanted to do it for a while. So he didn’t jump in without processing what he has seen first.