Art Pop?

One of the reasons I wanted to switch the direction of my blog was so that  could show off all of the INCREDIBLE pieces of fan art I've commissioned over the years. However, I've been having second thoughts after getting into a discussion over on my DeviantArt page.

Last year, one of the artists I commissioned posted a picture of one of my original characters, which is fine. The artists and I have an understanding and we get the others' approval before posting (being sure that we give credit to the other). The incident happened on Tumblr when, while scrolling through my Dashboard, who should I see pop-up other than my OC. Now that in itself isn't what bothered me (some of the artists have Tumblrs, as I do, and we post as per our agreement). The issue was that neither of us posted this piece and the mystery man was: 1) claiming the art their own and 2) claiming the character, my character, as their own creation. It was a months-long process trying to fix the issue - and it is, like anything posted online, not completely fixed. However, the artist and I did get the original poster to admit that the work and character was not their own, which on the Internets is a win. He/she has subsequently disappeared under that Tumblr moniker.

After this discussion, the fellow with whom I was debating still didn't see a problem with what happened. "Art and stuff are borrowed all the time. You're never going to stop it." As a creative individual, I put a certain amount of my heart and soul into everything I design. To have have someone else claim your work as their own is infuriating! They put nothing into the creative process themselves and yet claim all of the success as their own. Another thing that irked me, was that when the picture was posted by the thief, it got twice as many likes and reblogs than when the original artist posted it.

There will most likely be some art posted here, especially the pieces that I've already posted elsewhere online. But this debate and the lack of understanding have left a bitter taste in my mouth. In the end, what I decide to do will most likely depend on the comments and support I receive from my followers.