May 4, 2013

When you accuse a 6-year-old of plagiarism in an art contest...

... you'd better be ready to make a decision to disqualify her and stick to it. You've besmirched her, and you can't unbesmirch her. Oh, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! You idiots!
“Following the contest, concerns were raised by parents and teachers about the authenticity of the work,” the agency said in a press release. “The Federal Duck Stamp Office investigated and learned that the painting had been transferred, which is inconsistent with the Junior Duck Stamp Contest rules.”

Madison [Grimm] said she was “sad” and “a little angry” when she heard the news. “I worked really hard on it,” she told the Daily News.

Her father said was aware that the graphite transfer technique, which is when an artist uses pencil lead on a photo print to create an outline for a painting, was allowed, as was Madison’s use of an unpublished photo from her father as a model.

Robert Lesino, who was the Federal Duck Stamp Program chief when the junior program started, helped write the rules for the contest. He told the Argus Leader that Madison’s two practices were not violations, but rather legal and common practices among artists.
So it wasn't even a violation of the rules?! The press release was wrong? I'd like to know more about these "parents and teachers" who raised "concerns." Maybe they thought the "Junior" contest was supposed to consist of childlike art, like this one, which is the only one in the "2013 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Best of Show Art" Flickr set that doesn't look like it was traced from a photograph. Frankly, I'd prefer to see a duck stamp made from a naive child's drawing than a mature child's labored attempt to produce something that an adult illustrator would do, but you've got to make different rules to get that outcome. The concerned parents and teachers should lobby for different rules next time, not take aim at the one mature child who happened to be the best of the acting-like-an-adult photo-tracers.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps we can develop a Pill for Girls fourteen-and-under that prevents Plagiarism from occurring?

edutcher said...

Where does she go to get her reputation back?

KCFleming said...

Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Madison is kind of a cunt,right?

Wince said...

"Whenever they raise the postage, people need the little stamps."

Norm Gunderson: They announced it.

Marge Gunderson: They announced it?

Norm Gunderson: Yeah.

Marge Gunderson: So?

Norm Gunderson: Three-cent stamp.

Marge Gunderson: Your mallard?

Norm Gunderson: Yeah.

Marge Gunderson: Oh, that's terrific.

Norm Gunderson: It's just a three-cent stamp.

Marge Gunderson: It's terrific.

Norm Gunderson: Hautman's blue-winged teal got the 29-cent. People don't much use the three-cent.

Marge Gunderson: Oh, for Pete's sake. Of course they do. Whenever they raise the postage, people need the little stamps.

Kirk Parker said...

Oh, crap! EDH beat me to the Fargo reference!!!

Well played, sir. ;-)

campy said...

Why a contest? Can't they just give everyone a prize?

cubanbob said...

So this is why it's so important for the government to borrow 1 trillion a year. Your present and future taxes hard at work for your benefit.

Sam L. said...

Why, oh why, do I I need a special stamp to mail a duck?

tim maguire said...

I loved a comment I saw on the original article--these people can't even manage a child's art contest properly, but they want to run our healthcare system.

Serket said...

Her father said was aware that the graphite transfer technique, which is when an artist uses pencil lead on a photo print to create an outline for a painting, was allowed, as was Madison’s use of an unpublished photo from her father as a model.

Wow, that doesn't sound like plagiarism at all! Now speaking of something that actually is, when I was in 1st grade our teacher asked us to write up some poems, so I took out our nursery rhyme book and started copying some with a typewriter. My mother caught me and told me that is wrong.

George M. Spencer said...

"Art is what you can get away with."

Andy Warhol

The NYT just reported last week that Van Gogh used a mechanical device to get perspectives correct, as did the great Flemish masters.

I guess they weren't real artists.

As for Warhol, you'll see very, very few full body drawings, portraits, etc. by him. Why? Because he couldn't draw!

furious_a said...

these people can't even manage a child's art contest properly, but they want to run our healthcare system.

The country is in the very best of hands.