Don't Know a Lot About Art - But This Looks a Lot Like Stealing
People have asked me why I like Den of Demons, and I have lots of reasons for enjoying that forum (their honesty, for one thing. If you go there with an ugly doll, they will tell you you have an ugly doll, vs. Den of Angels were you get to hear how "unique" and "fantastic" your magic marker faceup is.) But currently I love them because they've just busted (what sure looks to me like) an art thief. And it was all through the internet detective work of several Den of Demons folks.

I don't know a lot about art. But I remember learning in elementary school that tracing something did NOT make an original piece of art that you could sell as your own. Pretty simple lesson. Well, apparently unless you're Mijn Schatje.



At first glance, her artwork is a) pretty and b) strangely familiar. Looking at any of her pictures I found myself thinking they were BJDs, but it never occurred to me she was just swiping pictures from the company sites (and sometimes private owners), and essentially tracing them. Can't belive an "artist" would do such a thing? Check this out:

The Evidence (The finished piece is what Ms. Schatje has been passing off as entirely her own. The source photos were tracked down and the overlays done by the members of Den of Demons to illustrate the "tracing").

I cannot imagine how angry I would be if I were any of the companies she swiped those images from. Or the private owners. But I think we're about to find out. The folks on Den of Demons have emailed the galleries showing her stuff, the magazines writing articles about her "art", and the owners of those images.

And THAT is why I love Den of Demons.

She got called out on an art site, and this was her reply -


(original link by Radiotrash - http://radiotrash.org/temp/t/liar.jpg)

Oh really, Ms. Schatje? So, if you've never seen the photos that must mean you don't have permission for them.

I hope Volks sues the holy living crap out of her. Though, she does have good taste in dolls. I particularly like this one - Rather Ripped off Narae. Though I have to say I like the original picture better than her "artwork".

And hopefully, somewhere out there, another elementary school class is learning that tracing is not art.

Den of Demons, you are all awesome for the incredible amount of work and team effort that went into this. This could NOT have happened on Den of Angels (it would've either been locked immediately for being "mean". Or it would've turned into 100 outraged teenagers sending random "U sux" emails to the galleries and the artist, getting nothing accomplished.) (Edited - I've been watching the DoA thread about this, and I am impressed with how it's been handled there. So I take this back. While I'm still not sure the information could've been gathered as effectively, I was wrong about how they would handle it. I am sorry, DoA. On this topic, I misjudged you. - Wendy)

Go, Go Den of Demon Detectives!




The irony of this piece kills me, because, actually, Mijn, it turns out we do know your secret.

- Wendy
(Griffonfeathers on Den of Demons)

(Here's another awesome Livejournaler [with an amazingly gorgeous doll] and HER LJ entry about this thievery. This is What We Call Art? Like she says, the only way to deal with this is to spread the word.)