My latest design submissions are here and waiting for you to vote for them. Click on each design below and you’ll be taken to that page. You need to have a Minted account to vote, but they have a beautiful product offering, and you can support me!

And, just in case you’re wondering about all of the challenges, I haven’t won anything yet, but I feel like I’m getting so much closer to a win. Only two of the challenges in which  I’ve participated have been announced. I’m still waiting to hear on five or maybe even six now. But, having the deadlines and parameters has been so motivating. And, whatever doesn’t make the Minted line will be available for purchase in my Etsy store. So, either way, it’s a win/win situation. I’ve also learned a great deal from looking at all of the other designers’ work, getting their feedback and pushing myself to try new and different things. Go vote! And, as soon as I get some good news, you’ll all be the first to know.

Next challenge—journals for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Graduation, and they’re due next week!

Looks Who's Turning Two

Birthday Olympics

Masterpiece Birthday

Look Who's Turning Two

Golf Classic

Dive Into the Fun

Tea Time

Watercolor Dream Home

Nest of My Own

Watercolor Floral Wreath

Patterned Wreath

A New Castle

Mosey on over to Minted.com and take a look at these and all of the other great designs. All you need to do is click on each image above, and you’ll be there. While you’re there, please cast some votes for me! Much appreciated!

Let’s start with this argument: “If you don’t want people to use it, then don’t put it on Google.” Sure, there are ways of keeping your images from being turned up by Google, but I don’t PUT it on Google—Google finds the images, and I want it to. In this digital age artists want people to see their work and the world wide web makes that easier to do than ever before. It’s the artist’s way of marketing and promoting themselves—making people aware of their work—networking—so that people who buy art, whether it’s for the original art or products or to be licensed, reproduction rights purchased and more, can find them to make those purchases or obtain permission. It’s free advertising! From Google Image Search, I am approached by people who want to buy my paintings or print reproductions, or to do freelance work for them. It has made self-promotion so much easier.

But it has also made stealing a cinch! And, using that art without permission—using it on a blog, website, printing it in a newsletter, brochure, on a t-shirt and selling at their own—those are all examples of stealing. As Google states on their Usage Rights page, “Anyone can browse the Web, but usage rights come into play if you’re looking for content that you can take and use above and beyond fair use. Site owners can use licenses to indicate if and how content on their sites can be reused.” Wikipedia defines fair use as “commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship.” This does not include copying my image to your computer to print in a program or place on your website for illustration. That’s why there are places you can buy clip art or stock illustration.

On my website at the bottom of every page you’ll find this “All content © 2005-2011 Laura Bolter Design and may not be used without permission.” It means that any art found on my website cannot be used without my permission. Period. So sometimes when doing a Google image search you find an image on a website, but the credit for the artist isn’t found. It is incumbent upon you to find the owner of the intellectual property before using it. One way to do that is with the Google image search feature itself.

When you click the little camera icon in the search bar you get this:

From here you can click to upload a copy of the image to your computer or paste a URL in the search bar. Searching from there, Google will give you image results with links that may take you to the intellectual property owner’s site, where you can then find out if they protect their images with a Creative Commons license or Copyright usage info, or contact information so you can ask for permission for your particular usage. But, if you can’t track down the owner, my advice would be not to use it. It just doesn’t belong to you.

Another way to do a search is with Google Advanced Image Search, which includes options for image searching with certain usage rights, including images marked specifically for reuse. However, Google also warns on their usage rights page, “Before reusing content that you’ve found, you should verify that its license is legitimate and check the exact terms of reuse stated in the license. For example, most licenses require that you give credit to the image creator when reusing an image. Google has no way of knowing whether the license is legitimate, so we aren’t making any representation that the content is actually or lawfully licensed.”

Now I’m not a lawyer, or even  (or close to being) an expert of this stuff. But, I continue to find unauthorized usages of my art—people even deliberately ripping me off my reproducing my art for sale and profit—and I just had to do a little something about it. So, please, if you’re so inclined, help spread the word, help me from having my work and the work of other artists stolen. And, if you are a person, lawyer or otherwise, who has more knowledge of this issue, please share it with me, and even more important, share it with everyone you know!

For more information, here are a few other websites to check out:

Creative Commons

Link With Love

U.S. Copyright Office

One more thought: 
Just as songwriters, singers, playwrights and other creatives are compensated each time their music is played on the radio or bought in the iTunes store, their play is produced, or movie played in a theater,etc., artists should be compensated for the use of their intellectual property. That is the way artists make their living and support their families. So often artists are asked to contribute their work to a cause, of have their art used for reproduction without compensation. And, just as others in the world chose their own causes to support or tzedekah to give, I and other artists do that too, with causes we choose or are dear to our hearts. We should not be expected to give our art away. Respect the work of artists as you would respect the work of anyone, whether they are the doctor you visit, the lawyer writes your will, the plumber who fixes your leaky pipes, and on and on… Our time and energy and art are no less valuable.

Okay. I’ll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for reading. Please share your thoughts.
 

Now is the time for you to weigh in with your votes. Click on the image and it’ll take you to the page for voting. If you don’t already have a Minted account, you’ll need to set one up before you can vote, but the time spent will be worth it. You’ll get to do a little mitzvah by casting your vote for my art, and you might see some other cool art in the process. Just make sure to vote higher for mine.

This first piece is meant to commemorate a wedding day.

This piece was designed to be a customizable wedding guest book alternative, where guests would sign their names in the small triangles.

The next challenge to end, Mark Your Calendars, was for wedding save the date designs:

Minted doesn’t post how long the voting process will be left open, so if you’re so inclined, don’t wait too long!

Two new challenges started the day these two ended—one for graduation announcements and the other for moving announcements. I haven’t even started thinking about them yet, but I have been getting some good feedback on the watercolor, which is done by hand, by the way, and is not digital. So, I might keep up that trend for at least a few submissions. If you have thoughts or suggestions about the designs shown in the post or the upcoming challenges, shoot them my way—I’d love to get feedback. The deadline iso these is coming up rather fast, so I suppose I should get to work. Watch for a post here to see what I come up with! Thanks!

]]> http://www.laurabolterdesign.com/archives/2200/feed 0 http://www.laurabolterdesign.com/archives/2183 http://www.laurabolterdesign.com/archives/2183#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:20:19 +0000 Laura Bolter http://www.laurabolterdesign.com/?p=2183

I’m always so anxious when designing handmade invitations. I’m so worried that I won’t be able to come up with a design that the client likes, or that I’ll need to show lots of concepts to a client—which means lots of work. But Abby and her mother were so easy to work with. I had designed the bar mitzvah invitations for Abby’s older brother, who unlike some boys, was very interested in the process and knew the kind of thing he was looking for. Abby was just as great to talk to, had definite ideas about what she liked—making my work easier, and was so gracious and appreciative. Today all of the work is done and the invitations are finished—the hand-lettering, the digital painting, the various component designs, the printing with two different printers, the cutting, trimming and assembling, counting and double checking—it’s all done and the invitations just need to be stamped and stuffed and dropped in the mail. I hope Abby and Mom will be pleased with the results and will enjoy getting the response cards back! But, with all the work I’ve done, it’s Abby who has the tough stuff ahead. She’s the one who’ll step up on the bima and chant torah and lead the congregation in services. I’m so looking forward to enjoy that day and I know she’ll be just a poised and gracious, and she’ll do such a wonderful job. Mazel tov to you and your family Abby!

A good shake after a great cup of ice cream.

Pearl says, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing and still want more!"

Pearl is a 14-1/2 year old Maltese and my faithful studio assistant. She alternates between sleeping in her comfy bed at my feet, guarding the doorway to my studio and helping make design decisions. Last week she had surgery for her second mast cell tumor, which turned out to be a grade 3—the most aggressive kind. We got the pathology results on Tuesday while Boyd was out of town. Pearl and I needed to drown our sorrows, so we went to DQ for ice cream. Most people like to drown in alcohol, but Pearl and I prefer the cold, creamy stuff. She LOVES going through the drive through there and getting a “Pup Cup.” So Tuesday night we headed over there, just the two of us. We waited patiently in the line of cars until we pulled up to the window. I was still patient but Pearl couldn’t restrain herself and went nuts! After pulling around into the parking lot, getting out of the car, we sat down on the grass, and she proceeded to devour that pup cup. She loved every. single. drop. In fact, she would’ve been even more happy with a double (she takes after me that way with ice cream—there’s never enough!) I tried to shoot pictures with my phone in one hand while keeping the cup from scooting away as she licked with frenzy. Then, she just as happily got back in the car, and rode with the window down, enjoying a more temperate Fall evening.

Before heading home we ran through another drive through at Walgreens. Again, she went crazy and wagged with enthusiasm! And, again she was rewarded with a yummy dog treat (well, SHE thought it was yummy—I didn’t partake).

When we got home she was so grateful for the good time and obliged me with posing for this terrific photo.

I love running errands with my furry assistant, enjoying the breeze and the scenery. I intend to run as many errands as I can with Pearl over the next months, reveling in all of the treasures we find along the way. Enjoy the pics and think good Pearl thoughts as she begins chemo treatment tomorrow morning. Pearl and I both thank you.

This has been fun to work on, to see what others are doing, try something different, and mess around. The next challenge is an art print challenge—creating wall art print that will be available in various sizes and, in some cases, personalized with photos and text by the consumer. Now that will be something REALLY different to work on!

Also, if you have comments to share I’d love to hear them!

Here are the current designs for voting:

My painting was chosen to promote the 2012 Jewish Arts Week sponsored by the American Guild of Judaic Art. It’s a great organization—I’m proud to be a member and honored to have had my work chosen! Visit the American Guild of Judaic Art for more information.

Click on the images and cast your vote on each page—5 is the highest and 1 is the lowest vote. You’ll have to set up an account first, but it should just take a minute, and then you’ll get to cast a vote for someone who doesn’t do negative campaigning or make promises they never intend to keep. Then, if you enjoy doing that, check back here next week, when I’ll be posting some more designs for voting in the Something Old, Something New challenge. It’s another wedding invitation contest, but this one encourages the use of cultural heritage text, images and concepts. You’ll be certain to see a few Jewish designs from me. If you want to get a preview of those you can find them on my profile page.

Let the voting begin! And, thanks for your support!