Who Owns What?

The topic of ownership of artistic concepts, style or actual art comes up from time to time, and I think there is always room for more discussion.  Just as there are only so many notes of  music, so are there only so many colors to use.  There are endless possible tunes achieved when you put together those few notes of music, and the same is true when you combine red, blue and yellow to create a myriad of colors.  But the reality is that eventually you will hear or see similarities in both.

When an artist starts a painting I am sure it is always with the intention of being original, but how can you be completely original when you are always using techniques and ideas that you have learned in workshops or demonstrations?  Even if you are self taught there are all of the books and magazines that have helped you form your own style.  Let's face it the amount of subject matter while infinite, still is subject to duplication.  So as an artist should you have to ask yourself is this "rose" going to look like the one I recently saw in a painting, or is it going to be my own?  The answer is that of course it is mine, which brings us to the gray area.

If you take an image that you have seen, and make it your own by using different color, different technique or different placement on the paper it should be your own property.  I was always taught that you need to have a photo of your image that you have taken yourself, no matter what quality it is as a way of proving you had the original idea.  I would think that would also work using a sketch that you did of an image that you have seen somewhere.  But some artists would argue that even the mere replication of shape is enough to constitute copyright infringement.  The two views will probably never come to common ground, since each side feels they are right.
 
We live in such a visible web based world, and I think because of that artists are more aware of replication of their work compared to say ten years ago.  It is my opinion, and only my opinion, that an artist should take the high road and view it as a compliment if someone should try to emulate them.  Of course I would never condone outright replication of an image, but let's realize that there is a gray area when it come to ownership of images and ideas.

So, my final thought is that each artist should paint from their heart, and realize that you can't control creativity.