“War Artist” Arabella Dorman sure likes the work of war journalist Michael Yon. Too much.
on May 22nd, 2012An artist named Arabella Dorman is profiled here. She claimed to be embedded in Iraq, where she paints soldiers and faces firefights. This 2009 article claims her war paintings were exhibited in London.
Did Ms. Dorman ever go to Iraq to meet these soldiers? We don’t know.
But we know Michael Yon, an independent journalist, did. Mr Yon took the original photographs that Ms. Dorman incorporated into her paintings. We’re not talking a little swipe here and there, we’re talking wholesale appropriation constituting the major element of a final work.
Yon’s original photo from his blog:
Ms. Dorman’s sketch.
Michael Yon’s original photo:
Take a close look at the two center figures.
Ms Dorman’s work:
Taken from the figure second from the right.
Another of Ms. Dorman’s works:
She’s standing in front of a piece copied from Mr. Yon’s photo.
Have a closer look at those war weary boys from Mr. Yon’s photo, both used in Ms Dorman’s paintings.
Ms. Dorman’s narrative, which she used to sell these pieces, clearly promotes her as an artist who spent time with these soldiers, and her work’s merit was based on that context. Prints of her work are for sale on her website for $200 and up.
At the Ministry of Defence website, the sketch from Mr Yon’s photo is displayed, along with the claim that the model sat for Ms Dorman.
If she did go to Iraq, there is absolutely no reason she needs to be plagiarizing the work of a photojournalist for her reference sources.
I’ll refrain from comment on the quality of Ms Dorman’s works. Except to suggest the Ministry of Defense might do better to hire some cartoonists I’d be happy to point out to them, if they want quality portraiture and lively visual narratives.
This whole thing leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
These photos are © Michael Yon and used for purposes of commentary. Mr Yon’s FB page is here.
wow, that is some flagrant appropriation there. There are no words.
Well, I’ve expended a few.
It’s just galling. This is a major commission, and a major trust. There’s no reason the artist should not have just whipped out a camera and used it so she could have something on which to base her works. She doesn’t appear to be very good at drawing from life, but that’s not the end of the world. Take your own ref photos, go home, use them. Simple.
It’s telling that the works based on Mr Yon’s photos are among the most prominently featured in articles about her art.
The copying really is pretty blatant. To me, also, it is like a double offense. Not only the copying from someone else’s photographic work, but also claiming “the subject sat for her” and such.
Some years ago, I saw a photographer on either Good Morning America or CBS Sunday Morning, who had taken pictures in Iraq, very good ones. There was one photo of a chaplain giving a single soldier communion by a bombed out structure, and they were using the remains of a wall with window as the communion rail. I immediately wanted to paint a picture based on it – the image said so much. But I haven’t been able to find a reproduction of the photo – and the photographer’s name is buried somewhere in one of my notebooks.
I may someday paint that picture, composing from memory. But I would certainly acknowledge the inspiration. It would never have occured to me without seeing that photo.
Why is it so hard for some “artists” to admit that?
Which is of course, not what Dorman is doing here. She’s pretty much taking someone else’s hand-made bricks and built her own wall saying she made the bricks.
Exactly. The swipe doesn’t get me half as much as the fact that she is selling these pieces based on a false narrative. That is eat up with wrong.
As a commercial artist, swiping is part of the business. But swiping responsibly, using reference in a transformative way, is what pros do. I can’t possibly come up with everything I have to draw out of my own mind, particularly with regard to things I’ve never seen. If I can, I track down the original source and purchase a license or ask permission. If I can’t, I try to be as transformative as possible so the derivative work is not infringing use. In over 20 years as a pro illustrator with hundreds of credits and millions of peepers on my work, I’ve never had a problem.
And for crying out loud, even the most mediocre cartoonist can draw in situ better than this. Seriously.
I wrote this article about the ethical use of swipe, in case anyone reading this thread missed it:
http://adistantsoil.com/2012/03/22/how-to-swipe-like-a-pro-reference-jed-brophy-gone-to-amerikay/
Is it bad that my first reaction to her copy of the boy holding the gun that she ran a photoshop filter over the photo?
Seriously, this is pretty messed up. How has she gotten away with this?
I have no idea. I expect this sort of thing to happen, it’s not the end of the world. But when an artist who is promoting herself the way she is, getting the commissions she’s getting does it, it’s just so not col. Michael Yon risks his life and does good work, and this artist parasitically feeds off of that effort, and the sentiment surrounding these young soldiers.
Pretty low.