MOOD
This piece was made as a cleansing exercise for my heart.
I'm not one for Art Therapy, but I must admit after I drew this I felt much better.
After the events of the last couple days in the art community, when Alfonso Dunn posted his video comparing his own work to an upcoming book of Jake Parker's, and accused him of plagiarism, my heart was ripped out. I take classes at SVSLearn.com, and while I have not met Mr. Parker I have been in Zoom meetings with him as a student and taken many of his instructional courses online through that service. I was struck numb when I saw the comparison, and didn't know what to think.
And then he was hit with waves of cancel culture. And I was witnessing the whole thing in real time: hundreds of people jumping on his Twitter and Instagram feeds bashing him, telling him he was evil and sick and should just quit. And then shortly thereafter, DeviantArt cancelled their Inktober awards, and then Lightbox cut ties with Parker, Inktober, and SVSLearn. And Mr. Parker hadn't even made a statement. They just dropped him within hours, without even hearing what he had to say or how he was going to respond.
Part of it was Mr. Dunn's video. He had complaints about layout, and copying the teaching methodology, and for a person who doesn't know any better, it seemed legit. It wasn't until quite a bit later that other people started posting "Wait a minute..." videos with their own analyses that a different viewpoint was heard.
But by then it was too late. The court of public opinion had weighed in, and Mr. Parker was judged guilty by a jury of the masses, and executed. The book was pulled for review by the publisher, Chronicle Books, and Mr. Parker was deemed less than human. It will be impossible for him to recover his reputation at this point. He will forever be dogged by posts that proclaim him a plagiarizer, whether he is found guilty in a real courtroom or not.
And I was taken aback. I was like, how could anyone think Jake did this? Where's his motivation? He's an incredibly successful children's book writer, illustrator, and teacher--there's no reason why he would even need to plagiarize. Why would he? He doesn't need to.
A lot of people were angry about his claiming of the trademark for his Inktober event. They were very upset, and felt he stole something from them that they didn't have ownership of to begin with. He'd encouraged them to use the Inktober event to publicize themselves, but when they started to market publications that banked into the Inktober name as the main draw, he was legally obligated to act on his trademark if he wanted to create official Inktober merchandise and books. And a lot of people were still angry about that. Jake was a villain no matter his motivations, his legal rights, or his integrity. The masses had made up their mind.
And the few videos that followed after Mr. Dunn's have made it clear that the idea Jake plagiarized may not be as clean cut as Mr. Dunn thinks it might be or wants it to be. I won't go into Jake's defense here, but it's clear that Mr. Dunn may be guilty of defamation and legally liable by posting his video without contacting Jake or Chronicle Books first.
And all that to say I watched a man's reputation die. I watched his career crumble. Even if he's found not guilty (which it's clear to anyone who knows art fundamentals, layout, and the editing process knows he will be) he will be labeled as "the man who got away with it."
And it was gut-wrenching.
And I had to draw something to make it all make sense, to work it out of my own heart and soul, to try to put it all on paper and get it out of my head and away so I could move on to something--ANYthing--else to distract me.
And that's how I created this. I'm calling it MOOD. And it's everything I was feeling. Everything I was seeing. The loneliness. The depression. The shock. The sharpness. The darkness. The defensiveness. The naivete. The protestation.
I don't know what's going to happen, but because SVSLearn via Mr. Parker was attacked, I felt personally attacked. And it stung. And I had to let it go somehow. Put it in it's place. So I can turn my attention to other things.
And I am.
I'm not one for Art Therapy, but I must admit after I drew this I felt much better.
After the events of the last couple days in the art community, when Alfonso Dunn posted his video comparing his own work to an upcoming book of Jake Parker's, and accused him of plagiarism, my heart was ripped out. I take classes at SVSLearn.com, and while I have not met Mr. Parker I have been in Zoom meetings with him as a student and taken many of his instructional courses online through that service. I was struck numb when I saw the comparison, and didn't know what to think.
And then he was hit with waves of cancel culture. And I was witnessing the whole thing in real time: hundreds of people jumping on his Twitter and Instagram feeds bashing him, telling him he was evil and sick and should just quit. And then shortly thereafter, DeviantArt cancelled their Inktober awards, and then Lightbox cut ties with Parker, Inktober, and SVSLearn. And Mr. Parker hadn't even made a statement. They just dropped him within hours, without even hearing what he had to say or how he was going to respond.
Part of it was Mr. Dunn's video. He had complaints about layout, and copying the teaching methodology, and for a person who doesn't know any better, it seemed legit. It wasn't until quite a bit later that other people started posting "Wait a minute..." videos with their own analyses that a different viewpoint was heard.
But by then it was too late. The court of public opinion had weighed in, and Mr. Parker was judged guilty by a jury of the masses, and executed. The book was pulled for review by the publisher, Chronicle Books, and Mr. Parker was deemed less than human. It will be impossible for him to recover his reputation at this point. He will forever be dogged by posts that proclaim him a plagiarizer, whether he is found guilty in a real courtroom or not.
And I was taken aback. I was like, how could anyone think Jake did this? Where's his motivation? He's an incredibly successful children's book writer, illustrator, and teacher--there's no reason why he would even need to plagiarize. Why would he? He doesn't need to.
A lot of people were angry about his claiming of the trademark for his Inktober event. They were very upset, and felt he stole something from them that they didn't have ownership of to begin with. He'd encouraged them to use the Inktober event to publicize themselves, but when they started to market publications that banked into the Inktober name as the main draw, he was legally obligated to act on his trademark if he wanted to create official Inktober merchandise and books. And a lot of people were still angry about that. Jake was a villain no matter his motivations, his legal rights, or his integrity. The masses had made up their mind.
And the few videos that followed after Mr. Dunn's have made it clear that the idea Jake plagiarized may not be as clean cut as Mr. Dunn thinks it might be or wants it to be. I won't go into Jake's defense here, but it's clear that Mr. Dunn may be guilty of defamation and legally liable by posting his video without contacting Jake or Chronicle Books first.
And all that to say I watched a man's reputation die. I watched his career crumble. Even if he's found not guilty (which it's clear to anyone who knows art fundamentals, layout, and the editing process knows he will be) he will be labeled as "the man who got away with it."
And it was gut-wrenching.
And I had to draw something to make it all make sense, to work it out of my own heart and soul, to try to put it all on paper and get it out of my head and away so I could move on to something--ANYthing--else to distract me.
And that's how I created this. I'm calling it MOOD. And it's everything I was feeling. Everything I was seeing. The loneliness. The depression. The shock. The sharpness. The darkness. The defensiveness. The naivete. The protestation.
I don't know what's going to happen, but because SVSLearn via Mr. Parker was attacked, I felt personally attacked. And it stung. And I had to let it go somehow. Put it in it's place. So I can turn my attention to other things.
And I am.
