Post #3045633

Having similar research interests or drawing inspiration from others is natural (even essential) in artistic practice. Ideas evolve in dialogue, and many of us explore overlapping territories. But there’s a difference between influence and appropriation. Influence means developing your own response to shared questions. Appropriation, in this case, means copying the visual structure, title, concept, and narrative framework of someone else’s work (without credit or acknowledgment). This isn’t an isolated case either; others in the field have noticed similar patterns of uncredited borrowing from artists like Jeff Donaldson and others whose work was repackaged or even offered as NFTs under his name. I don’t share this lightly. I know Philip personally (he even stayed at my house years ago). But silence enables repetition. This post isn’t about gatekeeping or claiming ownership over ideas. It’s about respect for artistic labor and the integrity that sustains our community. We can, and should, build upon each other’s research. But acknowledgment is the foundation of dialogue. Without it, art becomes extraction, not exchange.