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When do we stop calling something "Art"
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Message
Posted
I was hoping that a some point you would join in the conversation Michael, people were copying your work to prove a point .
What the problems is really about is you manipulating photographs no matter where you get them from and alter them digitally, then post them as your own creation. They are not actually digital paintings they are very much manipulated photos, I have looked back at you work and there is nothing there that I or many others would call actual digital art. A lot of people also e with disabilities as well spend hours painting and put it on this site , all their own work no matter how good it is. Then you spend a short time fiddling with a photo and claim it’s the same , we’ll for sure it’s not because you did not create it you manipulated it.
You don’t care as you have just stated , the people on this site can be proud of their life for many reasons including creating something from nothing. I suspect that you are not feeling very proud of yourself . I don’t know if you will be banned it not for me to decide unfortunately because I would do so without hesitation having just read your comments. Please do continuing to do your manipulating photos and continue to enjoy them but please don’t put them on here . I do hope you take the decision to leave this site , and genuinely hope that you find some site where your photos are enjoyed and given any credit they might deserve. Do I feel proud no Michael if anything I feel sad about the whole situation. But I’m sure your arrogance will get you through it .
Posted
I was contacted by email a short while back about photos. An admin. I assured them I was not using photos, Please produce the photos I used. Sure rhey are online. Sorry np photos,
Show me the copies I used. Or is this just a witch hunt. ? Shouting copy without the original is just hot air.
A complete lack of morals.
You are hunting for nothing.
Posted
I was contacted by email a short while back about photos. An admin. I assured them I was not using photos, Please produce the photos I used. Sure rhey are online. Sorry np photos, Show me the copies I used. Or is this just a witch hunt. ? Shouting copy without the original is just hot air. A complete lack of morals. You are hunting for nothing.Dear Michael I have noted two sources for your "first serious still live", which show exactly that: other sources: https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/FLl-gtL0aRY https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r9BXOL I find it quite perfidious to demand from us where the originals are, because such pictures can be copied x-thousands of times - changed with div. filters of graphic programs with one click - published. Then nobody knows anymore, not even Google, where the "true original" is. But to take this as a counter-argument is useless, because I would also like to see the ultimate proof of your wonderful art in the form of W I P. Unfortunately, a very skilled graphic artist could manipulate even a WIP. But then I would even tip my hat :)
Posted
Are there any T's and C's within this site we can read regarding, Michael posting his art work?
Allegations have been made, surely, it is up to the person/people who made the allegation to find the source and present it to anyone concerned.
I would have thought having the proof first would have been the better option.
Michael's version, described as 'my first still life'...
Nuff said!
Posted
Surely the best way to resolve this increasingly unpleasant situation which is beginning to spoil enjoyment of this site is for Michael to explain how, if not by manipulated photos, he does produce his images. His latest post this morning certainly looks like a modified photo - and we know he has in the past admitted to using photos from Unsplash. As others have already suggested, a WIP on the forum to show how he produces his images would be very welcome. (If not from a photo, are they AI generated?)
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
No. I spoke to one of the mods via text around that time. I was using photos back then, I mean the ones recently said to be copies. I owed up then Show me my recent work and I will throw my hands up.
I started learning by copying. Evertbody needs to start somewhere. Show me, The Pirates Daughter or Did The Bee Frighten You dear. Better still, The Art Attack.
The ones specified as copies.
I spoke to an admin as I mentioned Told her I no longer copied photos. I do not copy photos.
The Art Attack, must be famous online.
Posted
This is one of those arguments that will go on and on unfortunately, several people have and are considering leaving the forum and possibly the site due to this issue. Michael open admitted that he used photos when I challenged a so called painting quite sone time ago . At the time I asked if it was a photo or painting, his response initially was it was a painting I was ten give a photo taken of Unsplash and challenged him . Michael admitted it was a down load that he had manipulated, and said that he used copyrighted free photographs and did this for fun. There was a discussion on the forum at the time accusing me of been unfair to him and maligning his artwork, I hoped that that was the end of it at the time , sadly not . I down loaded the image Michael posted and the photograph he used , the image is still on his gallery page with some of the discussion at the time.
Michael said that he had not art training and discovered how to change the photos and did this for fun .
The original photo , Michaels image and the discussion, are attached below. Since the initial comments were made Michael has continued to post three or four images a day and called them digital artwork. It’s very clear in some that that is not the case and two very able digital artist on this site have said they are manipulated images. Given there vast experience it’s good enough for me to assume that his work is indeed manipulated photos . 
