Manifesto on Giving Credit

I wrote the below letter, along with my co-teacher Mati McDonough, a couple of years ago and we began sharing in all of our classes.

Our desire to write this letter grew out of a few situations where we experienced too much of a gray area when students in our classes went on to create & post work that was too closely related to our lessons, and not developed enough as their own. We realized that there was not enough clarity within the art community about what it means to develop your personal voice in your work while also learning from other artists. So we felt the need to shed light on this topic for our students and ourselves, and to open up this dialogue for further discussion.

What we didn't anticipate was the response from our students, it was all very positive and full of inquiry. We received so many comments from students telling us that this had long been an area of confusion for them....that too often they would take a class and learn new techniques, but they would feel stuck when it came to truly integrating these ways of working into their practice, and ultimately they were left feeling confused about how to create work that felt like it expressed their unique voice! So, in creating our online classes our hope is to fill that void. To offer a soft safe place where we can dialogue about all of these topics, and ultimately empower you to find ways of working that feel deeply personal and authentic to your own true and UNIQUE creative voice!

To all of our students, past, present and future....

It is such a pleasure to get to know your work! There is nothing better as teachers than to see that you have been inspired by the information and lessons that we presented. For this we are deeply thankful as our goal with all of our courses is to inspire our students to dive deeply into their own painting practice and studio exploration. As artists who have each been painting for 20 plus years it gives us great joy to share the ideas and lessons that we have developed through years in the studio, empowering other artists to go forward and do the same.

 We always like to tell our students that experimenting to find your voice in your work is fantastic, and a natural part of this is copying and being inspired by other artist’s work, lessons and ideas. A problem arises when a newer artist takes ideas and inspiration, creating work and selling and sharing it without fully making the ideas their own, this becomes a larger problem when the work is too referential and there is no credit given to the source of the inspiration and ideas. This can often happen accidentally, so we feel that this topic needs to be brought to everyone's attention so that there can be more clarity, less awkwardness and more dialogue surrounding it! After teaching for years, and encountering some uncomfortable experiences with copying, we felt the need to clarify our thoughts surrounding this to clear up any gray areas.

 When referencing lessons that you have been taught in a class you can always present your interpretation on the lesson, however when sharing beyond the classroom direct credit needs to be given to the source of your inspiration, and the original ideas for the lessons. 

 We always recommend for students who are finding their voice & style in their paintings to create at least 100 paintings before they share or sell them without crediting the source of the inspiration. It is very important to make something your own before putting it out into the world authentically. Please keep this in mind going forward about making your work authentically yours and crediting your teachers when you post work that has been inspired by a class that you have or are taking.

 Experimenting with your voice, style and ways of working are natural and exciting, especially when you are relatively new to this way of painting. Our goal with our lessons is always to give you tools with which you can go forward in your studio and develop your unique voice in your work. We all have some thing to share, and by making your work unique to you ultimately you are allowing yourself to shine brightly! The world needs YOUR voice.

 This is ultimately a small art community in the online world, we all see each other and the work that we are each creating. You are not creating art in a vacuum, although we understand that it can feel that way as we each make art in our own studios and then share it with the world on social media. More than ever as these platforms grow we need to be vigilant about accountability and giving credit where credit is due. As visual people we are all inspiring each other and learning from one another, so as a developing artist it is more important than ever to acknowledge where your teaching and your ideas come from.

 We want to emphasize that as your teachers & fellow artists we are here supporting you, cheering you on. Please understand that this is ultimately coming from a place of love, so that you will be able to more clearly move forward with your work, further developing your own style and ideas, and giving credit where credit is due so as not to step on toes or actually infringe on intellectual property.

 With blessings as you grow and develop.

In Paint,

Mati and Faith

P.S. To dive further into this topic we love the following resources:

~I go into this topic in depth in The Creative Growth Workshop, giving you lots of ideas for ways that you can be inspired by someone's work AND integrate those new ideas into your work without copying!

~This article on the 4 Phases of Developing Your Creative Voice is super helpful to go further into this topic and what it looks like to develop your creative voice!

~And this video called How to be Inspired Without Copying.