Keep Your Fair Use Fingers Out of My Copyright Pie

I use my own original images in my work, whether it be silkscreen, non-silver processes or photographs. It's a bit disconcerting to see some around me use images that are not their own, or if questioned, say they don't know where they got the image. I'd be pretty upset if I came upon one of my own images in use by another. It's bad enough that shows charge an artist to enter, then award to the 'best of'' with that money. Very little art funding gets to working artists out there, at least those like me who have to work a job and keep time for art work. There does not appear to be any guidelines for protecting visual artists, and very little support for them.

I would prefer that artists never enter a competition that charges money. Stop the exploitation.
Demand that a large percentage of 'art funding' goes to having an open call exhibition that does not cost the artist a fee.

I've been finishing two silkscreen pieces on Thom Yorke (Radiohead) from my photograph. The first one is an edition of 8, with three pieces already gone and one I shall keep for myself. The other 4 I will put up for sale. The color can vary a bit from one to the other, and a bit of stray paint can hit part of the paper (Arches 88) it is screened on. I believe that I have Johnny Greenwood in the corner, a bit darker in the image. As I always say, I pray at the church of Radiohead.

I saw a film recently titled "Everlasting Moments", a Swedish film by Jan Troell (watch the extra footage about him, and with him revealing much about his inspiration). Like the great film Seraphine, the film addresses that spark that an artist feels that brings him or her into the realm of inspiration. There is a line in the film about 'one who sees' and once you see, you cannot unsee. Beautiful piece.