An Apology

[ellenmillion]

I must apologize.

I was young and dumb, not so very long ago, and I did all those things that make folks roll their eyes in disgust.

I wrote bad poetry that overused words like 'darkness' and 'despair.'

I made characters that were such blatant Mary Sue's I may as well have named them 'Ellen.' And then had them get involved in disgustingly gooey romantic relationships with canon characters. And I gave them Special Powers and Dark Pasts.

I copied famous artwork.

I copied famous artwork and expected kudos for my 'skillful' imitations from my friends.

I submitted terrible stories to completely unacceptable markets and probably made more than one editor out there cringe and weep.

I thought I was creative when I clearly wasn't.

I was sensitive about my work to the point of ridiculousness and would cry and rip it up if it didn't turn out right. (I would also spend several hours in the bathroom every morning trying to get my bangs curled into perfect 80s wallbangs and cry and get frustrated when they didn't work. It took me a while to figure out that crying and getting frustrated was pretty counterproductive. And that wallbangs looked stupid on me.)

I couldn't take criticism. Or suggestion. Or anything but outright praise.

I was stupid, and naive, and suggestable, and sensitive, and so terribly proud of my limited accomplishments.

The world should be greatful I didn't have 'Net access that early in my life.

I am very sorry for these things I did, and they shame me to remember and admit.

Please forgive me for being young and stupid.

And please remember that just about everyone starts out young and stupid.

Comments

[octoberdreaming.livejournal.com]

Arroo? I'm guilty of all the same things (well, maybe not the artwork, so much, but then I was never an artist), so maybe I'd better apologize, too. I'm sorry, World!!!

I think every creative person goes through that sort of awkward creative phase. L. M. Montgomery's description of this phenomenon in the "Anne of Green Gables" series makes me howl with laughter even as I cringe while reading all my old work. I kept it. I couldn't help it. I'll show it all to my kids someday, just to prove to them I'm human. >.>

[curvature.livejournal.com]

I do think it's sad that it's turning into a mob situation. If I was still a mod there I would have stopped the thread as it's something I never used to allow.
Claims of stolen work were between the artists who had been stolen from, and the artists doing the stealing. It's never been ok to drum up support for a lynch mob.

[cerberus.livejournal.com]

Oh great, another stupid thread on there?

[curvature.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/community/elfwood/736293.html

[uminomamori.livejournal.com]

I copied famous artwork.

I copied famous artwork and expected kudos for my 'skillful' imitations from my friends.


Guilty:)

When I was in high school half the poses of the art on my website were copied. I changed everything else though. So, I'm generally ok with kids doing that because I know it's how I learned. I still get inpsired by art by long dead artists now.

[uminomamori.livejournal.com]

And now someone's posted it on a yahoo group I'm on. I'm afraid this is going to turn into a giant mess and make her never want to draw again.

[curvature.livejournal.com]

yeah
I totally understand about the original artist being angry - but I completely disagree with the way she's going about 'fixing' the situation. Because it's scattered around the net now, even if they come to an agreement that girl is going to continue to get hate mail for quite a while.
And she really is very talented, she just needs to work a bit more on putting her own 'self' into the pictures so that they no longer lean so heavily on other peoples vision.

[cerberus.livejournal.com]

Ergh, hate to say it, but it really doesn't look good for that girl. Even the wings are so similar that there's slim to no chance of it being random coincidence.

[curvature.livejournal.com]

True - I don't dispute that she's copied. I just don't like it when people use the communities to start wars.