-J

I can’t tell you how happy I am to read your words. Your offer to put aside your past feelings is a great relief to me. What is done is done and I imagine it wasn’t easy to come forward after all that. I know in my own burning desire to make work, I haven’t always been that sensitive. This is a struggle for me in my real life relationships and something I am always trying to do better. Sorry if I hadn’t taken enough time to acknowledge your work and engage in discussion.

I’m really enjoying your work at the Brooklyn Is Watching show. The bronze sculptie piece is especially striking. Also, the feedback you gave the other day on my work in the show has given me much food for thought.

There’s always the future!

Many thanks,
Juria (Lance)

Let us make peace.

I was angry about some of the things that have passed between us, but after spending a little time with you recently, I realize it was wrong to lash out.

I would like to publically apologize for my tirade. The passion I have for my art burns very hot and can sometimes get me so wound up I forget my manners AND my sense of humor.

I want bury this grudge, put the negativity behind me and sincerely offer to make peace with you and everyone in the Second Life Art Community.

Kind regards,

DC

Welcome Keystone! I’m a big fan of your Reflexive Architecture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBtma6YXAis. I’ve especially enjoyed seeing how other artists have taken your open source script to create new works like Douglas Story’s DynaFleur at http://dynafleur.blogspot.com/. I wanted to comment back to your question regarding an alternate forum for this discussion which makes a lot of sense. I am very much interested in sharing differing opinions here or elsewhere. The question of censorship shouldn’t even be an issue if the posts did not turn to accusations and maliciousness. I’d be very willing to take this conversation elsewhere on the condition that it’s a civil discourse.

As Quadrapop has advised, I’d like to get back to focusing on work. That said, I believe this thread has been very meaningful and a good chance for people to consider attribution, ownership of art vs. art influence, etc etc. I’d like to thank DC for acting as a catalyst for this. It’s been a chance to reflect.

Hi TF, thanks for your thoughts. I obviously agree with your opinions but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t name call (even with a “*” that word hurts.) I think you made your point very well without. Thanks a lot!

Elros, always a pleasure, man. Thanks for piping up, especially since your name has already come up by myself and Sabine. You have a gentleness that is hard to find in big city Tokyo where I am.

Other opinions… Violetta LeShelle has taken this discussion over to her blog at http://sldepot.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/seeing-spots-being-dots-2/ She kindly reviews my past show “4″ and this new performance in question Seeing Spots, Being Dots. She has also spent a good deal of time questioning “the new” in sl art or in her words: “I guess my real question is, what is in fact the newness. Is it the genre (a term used by Juria) in total, or do we already have to look at the differences in language (a term used by DC). Whichever one it turns out to be, the fact is that as in RL, artists are also being inspired by other artists. And sl art is, even if to us it feels like a big thing, still a small niche. I for one am really curious to find out how long we will be able to experience newness in sl.” Be sure to check out her full blog post.

Enjoy art.
Lance (Juria)

I love seeing the new works of Juria, DC and Sabine - you all work big, you all create amazing works I can only dream of equalling. Keep up the good work and please stop wasting your energies in bad feeling, put it into some new works for all to experience and learn from.

Now as far as dragging this subject through blogs and saying ‘my lawyer told me..’ is pretty juvenile- though I completely understand DC and why he is feeling uncomfortable (insecure?) about someone else using the same medium.

Sky Dancers was a nice performance but raving about some ‘rights’ to the medium won’t stop it from being further developed and/or bettered by others..and it certainly could use some further development, tbh.

You really cannot copyright an inspiration in art, you can only make sure your original piece is safe and that derivative works credit you…now, if someone makes a derivative work which (despite you are credited) outshines your original, well, sorry, that’s how it goes in life.

You may be able to slap an international lawsuit on someone just to be a c*nt, but that pretty much wraps it up with me as an art collector/lover. I don’t buy/enjoy art from people who would do that as they cannot teach me anything.