A local artist has won honors by painting portraits of

[Hardrada]

many of us who were/are her townsfolk. She has come out with a book with our images (150 or so) but not our names. I think we should have been identified but is that the obligation of an artist? What do you think?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Hardrada...

I'm not really sure, but I suspect it's the artist's call. Maybe she was trying to preserve your anonymity?

:shrug:

[Hardrada]

8. It's a small town so none of us are anonymous to each other.

I am simply wondering what the obligation is to the greater world. I for one don't mind if I am identified. I think of it as a sort of artistic Spoon River Anthology since she did have people also talk and give their impressions of the community. But their comments weren't matched to the portraits in the book.

[hippywife]

2. I think it's at the discretion of the artist.

I don't think there is any obligation to do so. :hi:

[Hardrada]

9. Hi! No probably no obligation but I am looking at this from the

standpoint of an historian. Wouldn't it be nice to know the names of the people in the frescoes at Pompeii?

[hippywife]

18. I guess it gives

historians something to do. :shrug: :rofl:

:hi:

[Hardrada]

24. Speaking for myself, I have enough to do to last me a lifetime already

so I am hoping to spare others some effort.

:D

[david13]

3. Hadra, you are not saying the artist should name names, are you?

I think an artist can do whatever they want. Part of the definition of art or something, isn't it?
dc

[Hardrada]

10. It's a living community she painted though and not a solitary

absinthe drinker. It is almost an historical document. One town caught in time.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. Depends...

...most attorneys would look at a situation like that and ask "did the artist make any money?"

Because using someone's likeness without their permission in order to turn a profit opens up a legal can of worms. Many artists roll the dice on whether someone will complain or not. Rule of thumb is that if someone complains, an attorney's antenna goes up. If the attorney thinks they can win, they will intimidate the artist until the offending image is removed, they pay damages, or both.

I regularly take photos / videos of the clientele attending special events at a local restaurant...without their permission, and without naming them. Turns out they are "hams" and LOVE seeing themselves on the Web. When they see me with my cameras, they often ask the owner...or me..."When is this going to be on the site?"

:toast:

[Hardrada]

11. It is not a question of profit really. But she does get great honors

and recognition by using our images. We are valuable patterns but by not being identified we are not really people to the greater world. It comes out more like a tribal study in the National Geographic.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

16. In strict legal terms, no one has the right to use your likeness without your permission

There are all kinds of "grey areas" in the world of art, "fair use" doctrines and such, but in the black and white realm of the legal system, if someone uses your likeness without your permission and you take exception to that act, you have legal recourse.

Of course, if you have expectations regarding the behavior of the artist in question, you have no recourse. To this individual, it might be a "tribal study in the National Geographic." Every artist has a different attitude toward their subject matter, especially when it comes to human beings. To some, a person is a "model" or a "subject" and that makes them, in varying degrees, synonymous with the word "object." To others, a human subject presents a challenge to capture and reflect that person's humanity.

Artists are like everyone else. There are good people who are artists, and there are assholes who are artists. Your artist could exist at any point along that line, and unless you know them personally and intimately, speculating over how she sees your place in her art really won;t get you anywhere.

[Hardrada]

25. I have had a number of good discussions with her but her attitude

in relation to the book seems ambiguous. She wants an intimate conversation with the town but does not apparently want it known enough to identify us as who we are. Or perhaps she feels she has captured our essence so well that her art is ID enough. She is a very hard working professional with a mind-set markedly different from mine since I am a historian interested in all the facts. And who is/was who.

[Flaxbee]

5. Well, if she painted you from encounters in public spaces,

probably not. Might have been polite, but I don't think there are any legal obligations.

You've reminded me of a good book I read a while back and cannot for the life of me remember the title... a woman in a small town paints many of her neighbors and friends, paints them on every surface of her house walls, ceiling, etc. It was a mystery.

[Hardrada]

12. It was a full length five hour portrait session for each of us

and we cheerfully did it because she is such a good artist. I am not going to complain really but I rather hoped a name would go with my old mug.

[mopinko]

17. so, did you pay her?

and did you keep the painting?

[Hardrada]

23. She had a grant to do the picture project.

We then paid a moderate fee each for our own personal portrait. That part was fine. But one wants to match a face with a name for future reference. Someone might want to go into some depth on the people involved in the project. I see things as an historian since that is my metier.

[Hardrada]

15. If you find what that book was let me know. I would like to read it.

[mopinko]

6. probably didn't keep track.

wasn't planning the book, prolly, just honing her tool.

[Hardrada]

13. After awhile, I imagine a book seemed inevitable.

[AsahinaKimi]

7. I understand that

Norman Rockwell did that..


Rockwell’s Marine: PFC Duane Parks Epitomized Returning War Hero

In early 1943, Private First Class Duane H. Parks returned to his hometown of Dorset, Vt., before he shipped out to the South Pacific to fight in World War II. The last thing on Parks’ mind was becoming a model for a painting.

So when a stranger approached him at a local square dance and offered him the chance to be in a paint­ing, Parks wasn’t interested. As a 19-year-old newly minted Marine who would soon join fellow leathernecks in battle, he had other things on his mind—not the least of which was making some good memories at the square dance in nearby Arlington.

Yet posing in his Marine uniform is just what PFC Parks ended up do­ing for none other than treasured American artist Norman Rockwell, but it was not without some persua­sion from Parks’ mother and sister.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.mcaleatherneck.org/leatherneck/aug08_rockwell.asp&usg=__p7b5mfELli181HHvqAJW0MV1yLQ=&h=393&w=300&sz=52&hl=en&start=20&um=1&tbnid=CrTfypUi9ae0-M:&tbnh=124&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnorman%2Brockwell%2Bpainting%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

[Hardrada]

14. Well, you knew who that guy was anyway. That was good.

I have a book with all the Rockwell cover art.

[Bucky]

19. Including your name would invite financial (& thus legal) complications

What was Mona Lisa's real name? Who was the model for Venus on the half-shell? What nude did Picasso see descending the stair case before painting Nude Descending a Staircase? No one cares.

[Chan790]

20. There is some speculation that...

the face of the Mona Lisa is Di Vinci's own...if you take one of the few existing images of Leonardo and shrink it so that the proportions of the face are the same, they match exactly.



I do see your point though.

[Bucky]

21. Yes, but that animated gif shows that Mona Lisa is not a feminized Di Vinci

The two faces look almost nothing alike. His face is rounder, his nose is much larger, her smile is lower on the chin, his chin sticks out more with an underbite while hers is receding, her cheekbones are higher...

If that's supposed to be Leo himself, then I'm calling it: DiVince was a crappy painter. That's right, you heard it here first!

[Chan790]

22. well yeah...

the man painted in the sfumato style...literally to look like the subject was in a smoky room. You mean to say that he might not have been a good painter? He was a hell of an artist though, that doesn't always require precision and skill...just creativity and talent.

[mopinko]

26. bluntly- if you didn't really pay for it, you don't own it.

she had a grant, you didn't really pay, you were just a model. in the art world, models don't have names.
in a nutshell.

[Hardrada]

27. That's probably so. It was an interesting project though. And

I imagine future historians might be able to put all the pieces together and match everyone up.