When imitation is not flattering

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Dale Chihuly’s lawsuit raises questions about art and originality.

While the material you are reading bears my name, it may or may not have been written by me. Sometimes I just execute the concept, then have my staff of minions who have ben trained to emulate my style do the actual grunt work of writing.

What? It works for big name artists, why can’t writers do it too? Just kidding. Of course I do all my own writing. I’m not famous enough to have other people do it for me.

The subject of artists and the process of creation (not to be confused with creation) has been in the news lately due to the red-hot copyright lawsuit glass artist Dale Chihuly brought against a former employee.

Chihuly sued his former “gaffer,” that’s a glass blower, Bryan Rubino, for producing works that looked, Chihuly said, “identical” to the designs that made him famous. Not only that, but Rubino made them while working for another artist, Robert Kaindl, whose only contribution was to sign his name to the pieces. Rubino countersued, and things got ugly.

According to a recent article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the lawsuit caused Kaindl to lose “a lot of business,” including a contract with mega-store Costco for a special line of sea shapes for $550 a pop. Sea shapes. Hmm. Where have we seen those before? As for contracting with Costco, that alone should negate his right to call himself an artist.

There’s been a lot of grumbling about Chihuly for years, the essence of which is that he doesn’t actually “create” his art anymore, that it’s all done by his workers. One blogger called him the “Franklin Mint” of Seattle. Ouch.

Had Chihuly not lost an eye in a car accident at the beginning of his glass career, he would probably be much more hands on about his art. Handling molten glass without depth perception — not such a hot idea. But even if his gaffers do most of the work, they couldn’t imitate his style if he hadn’t developed it in the first place.

What he lacks in eyesight he makes up for in vision.

Just as there are no new ideas for writers, there are no new ideas for art. It’s all a matter of building on what came before and taking it to daring new heights; of making us see things differently.

Chihuly’s fantastic “sea forms” were inspired by the nature that surrounds him in the Northwest. He’d be in a heap of trouble if God or Mother Earth could sue for copyright infringement.

People may not be able to tell by looking at a piece of glass if it’s an authentic Chihuly, but they can tell it’s in his style — Chihulyesque, as it were.

The glass master has spawned thousands of Chihuly-inspired glass artists from the Pilchuck Glass School in the 35 years since he started it. Like spores they have spread out around the world, starting their own glass studios, creating their own “original” art, much of it reflecting the substantial influence of Chihuly.

For a local and informed opinion on the subject of art and imitation, I consulted Victoria Josslin, director of education and information for Bainbridge Arts and Crafts.

“I think copying Chihuly is a sleazy thing to do. I also think that buying a Chihuly copy is a sleazy thing to do. And passing off your Chihuly knock-off to your friends (I’ve got to think that that happens) is also sleazy,” she said, but added, “artists ‘learn’ from one another, ‘get inspiration’ from one another and ‘pay homage’ to one another. T.S. Eliot said ‘Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.’”

Josslin brings up a good point in that imitators wouldn’t create knockoffs if they didn’t sell. Doubtless there are people who buy the Chihuly look-a-likes because they want to impress their friends, who are hopefully as clueless about good art as they are.

The sad thing is that if people looked around in local galleries, or venues such as this weekend’s Bainbridge Island Studio Tour, they could find wonderful original works of art for the same price, or less, than the imitations. And who knows, today’s unknown glass artist may be tomorrow’s Chihuly. Think what an early original Chihuly must be going for now.

Kitsasp Beat is a regular feature of What’s Up. Address questions or comments to Marcie Miller (360) 779-4464 or mmiller@northkitsapherald.com.