I must admit that my time away from the moldy doily has been hectic! Not only have I been constantly working (sometimes even on my weekends) but a few crazy things have happened as well. For one: my friend who lives in Ithaca NY discovered that I have an ART STALKER/Thief! It was the strangest thing, some 39 woman who lives in Ithaca, NY named Angela Strawberry Curls decided to post paintings of mine on her facebook and her blog and pretend that SHE made them. I almost couldn't believe it, but then my pal sent me the links and indeed this girl Strawberry Curls had posted over 20 drawings and paintings of mine where she took credit for creating them. Included in this odd finding were paintings I have sold to friends, my Flaunt magazine cover art, even the Show Pony closing flyer! Totally strange and obviously recognizable. She even stole some that I sold on etsy and have the receipt of selling and sending. The creepiest part was that she would elaborate on her page about her inspiration making them, use the same titles and mention how she indeed made this one "just this week!" I have some of the paintings here on my blog where I am actually standing in front of them painting them myself. Worse than all that, she then reprinted some of my paintings on paper and exhibited them in an art show in Ithaca at some coffee shop called Kitschen Sink. She had some of them hanging amongst her own things. The actual flyer to the show was my art work: she had taken this flyer from show pony and painted over the text and then used my moldy doily post category "things that inspired desire" as the show title!
I can't imagine her own friends and family believed that all of a sudden she switched from ceramic tiles to possessing a huge body of work: MINE. Years and years of my hard work stolen in an instant and claimed by someone else. I will admit the night my friend sent over the links to this girl my heart went racing and my hands started shaking. I was terrified and confused. Wondering if she was some delusional person. I had hoped she was a teenager and perhaps got carried away with my identity and liked that people were commenting on her pages, but when I discovered she was 39 I nearly fainted. She had not innocently make a few postings, but countless times took credit for my paintings and even made references to why she has been into this new subject matter, the lolita syndrome etc...
I have friends who screen captured all of her sites and since this will now be a legal matter I have given them to my lawyer. She has since made access to her facebook site private and has deleted her blog but continues to do art shows in Ithaca, NY as Angela Strawberry Curls. She supposedly has one tonight at Ithacamade. Her own mother wrote me back and said that I must be "confused" and that her daughter didn't claim my work but was merely inspired by it, but trust me I have the screen captured pages as proof that she did.
Here is her version from the flyer: she titled it SWOON
The screen capture in it's entirety (with my lawyer) has a bunch of comments under this painting of mine where she talks in detail of her inspiration for making this, as and when people exclaim that they love this one did she paint this. she responds Si Si lovelies I indeed did. (I made this one in 2006 and currently hanging in my friend's home)
Since all of this has gone down combined with my long hours at work I have had some stressful weeks...resulting in stomach bleeding, migraines and eventually dehydrated collapse last Saturday. I couldn't stop throwing up and my husband found me on the floor almost unable to breathe. Weirdly my arms went completely numb and he ended up calling 911. So an ambulance ride later and an I.V. and cat scan and some rest and I was sent home before nightfall. Still trying to figure it all out! I am feeling better this week and have missed posting on here and missing all of my creative friends I have met through this blog adventure.
XOXOXO