When I arrived at work this morning, I read the overnight comments posted to Jennifer Moody’s story, “Award-winning teen artist admits copying.”
The story currently has 63 comments, most of them condemning Kasey Bowman, the Albany high school senior who admitted she copied a painting for which she received a gold medal in the 2010 National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition. With this story, there’s been no shortage of people eager to cast stones.
Maybe it’s the dad in me, but I find myself in the camp of those who say cut this girl some slack. She has admitted her mistake — in a lengthy apology on her website — and has received an online public whipping. If her apology is sincere — and it sure seems so — then there is every reason to believe that she’ll never go down the plagiarism road again.
It’s time to leave Kasey Bowman alone.
9 comments
Dallas Mavericks Are New and Improved in 09-10 - Top News, Music, and Sports - The Blog Conglomerate says:
May 5, 2010
[...] Kasey Bowman has been punished enough « Graham Kislingbury [...]
America's Infatuation with Hollywood Stars | Hot Celebs Uncovered says:
May 6, 2010
[...] Kasey Bowman has been punished enough « Graham Kislingbury [...]
BillyShatner says:
May 6, 2010
The girl who did the "copy" has obvious talent, and it is really not a straight copy. The reality is that many famous realist artists, like John Currin and Mel Ramos routinely swipe poses from photos, some of which have been exposed. Yet no one raises a fuss about these multimillionaires. Picasso and Warhol were clearly copyists as well. The fact that these big time artists have plagerized doesn't make it right, but in the art world copying is really a form of homage and interpretation. Her painting was clearly based on the other guy's; she could have done more interpretation over copying and should have given credit once it was up for an award. But, she is clearly very talented and has a bright artistic future and I wish her well. Lesson learned, case closed.
camifisher says:
May 7, 2010
I read her appology and read from Wenqing Yan's website how Kasey appologized personally to her properly (after some failed attemps) as well as Scholastic admited the problem and gave the prices to people with original art.
I agree with Graham, all we can do now is hope that this was her first art theft, that her apologies were sincere, and that she learned her leason. She's suffering for what she did and has taken enough bullets for it, now all that's left is for her to grow and learn from the experience.
The one I do not agree with at all is you, Billy. I've been drawing for a long time and know a lot of talented people who have built a huge part of their lives based on their skills, I'd be lying if I said we do not take references from other artist, but that's what we use it for: references, one thing is to figure out the position of an arm you have trouble drawing from other people's work and a very different one is to copy the entire concept/piece.
I don't know what your idea of "straight copy" is, but I ask you to look at the picture on this website:http://www.democratherald.com/news/local/article_…
She redid the exact same artwork with a few minor changes. Look carefully and you'll notice she even rewrote the poem word by word.
It's perfectly fine if you want to redraw an existance piece TO LEARN from it. There's no problem with that, just leave it in your desk and use what you've learn to improve your own art, but don't take credit from it.
And believe me, if Warhol takes one of my drawings (dreaming is free…) and copies it without crediting the actual creator, I'll consider it a crime, not a homage.
GreenTrinket says:
May 8, 2010
Punished Enough?
She was not sued, she was not expelled from her school, no one is throwing her tomatoes .All shes getting is complains and mean comments on her myspace and other websites.. she can just turn off her computer and pretend nothing happened.
Shes not some 12-15 year old that entered her local art contest with a copied work and won a ribbon and ..
Shes an 18 year old adult (according to her myspace) that used the work, that belongs to art student, to enter a national contest.
She accepted the $10,000.00 prize , the 2 gold medals in Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition, agree to do the interviews and the photographs, agree to go have the works published and exposed at the museums, she was even going to travel to new york to accept the awards..
My question is.. didnt she felt a bit of guilt? I mean she was becoming famous for a work she didnt do.
It was only until the real owner found out and contacted the contest administration. That she was asked if it was her original work or not. She was caught.. and ended up admining eveything..
GreenTrinket says:
May 8, 2010
Ive been reading several articles after she confessed. In many she says "she copy a work she saw years ago and she does not remember from where" "she had no way of contacting the real author , therefore couldnt ask for permittion or give her credit"
Both casey bowman and yummei (real author of the work) have accounts on the same art website.
This is the real authors artsite – http://yuumei.deviantart.com/
And this is Kasey Bowman -http://coyotebrutal.deviantart.com/
Kasey Bowman at yummei add as a friend! And even bookmarked the stolen work..
So she lied when she said she had no way on contacting her and had no idea where the work was located.
Back to the subject.
The only "punishment" Kasey Bowman recieved was had the prizes removed.. wich i dont think is a punishment.. i would call that being FAIR.
Natalia says:
Apr 17, 2011
I have to say this to you. Stay out of this and stop trying to be a “dad”. She stolen art and now she have to endure the consequences like a decent person, something i think she is note.
Will says:
Jun 23, 2011
Grow some respect, Natalia. This man has a right to post his thoughts on his own blog. He didn’t go to your site, or the site of either artists, but his own site. You are on HIS blog, telling him to stay out of something? Stolen “art”…go back and cry on your DeviantArt account. There isn’t a lick of original material on that page to begin with, that’s why it’s for teens and younger.
John says:
Jun 29, 2011
What are you talking about? The person who Kasey Bowman stole the art from is an adult, a student from UC Berkeley. Calling DeviantArt unoriginal and childish is uncalled for and a mistaken belief. Kasey Bowman directly copied the work and was punished for it. There is no need to bring others in DeviantArt into your insult.