One of the things I’ve been blessed by the most in this faith art community is the encouragement, inspiration, and beautiful friendships that I’ve found because of a few images shared on the internet. This community was so much smaller when I stumbled across Bible Journaling last year and as it continues to grow, so many other things follow suit. Yes, there are more friends and more worship and because of that, there is more inspiration. There is also more criticism, plagiarism, and unnecessary vitriol. I don’t know what it is about joining women together in a common place that encourages hateful words, but where two or more are gathered…
Last night, I happened to read a conversation about whether it was okay to directly copy work that other people were sharing. Unfortunately, I was late to the party and by the time I read through the comments (some of them down right nasty) and drafted a coherent response, the post had been removed. Since this is a topic I have not been able to stop thinking about for weeks and have even been discussing with some very close friends, I was surprised to see that so many people disagreed with me wholeheartedly. Some comments suggested that anything shared in a public forum became “free for the taking” and could therefore be copied whenever and however someone chose to do so. Others claimed that they would be happy for people to copy their work, as long as it was bringing glory to God. I have to tell you that I completely disagree with both of those sentiments and I want to tell you why.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we have ownership over our thoughts. Intellectual property is something protected by law, but even if it wasn’t, we should have the grace to recognize an artist’s ownership of their own thoughts and ideas. Of course I realize that no idea is a truly new idea and that we are constantly being inspired by the works of others every second we are alive. I’m not suggesting that we ignore the longing to recreate someone’s technique, I’m merely suggesting that our approach is all wrong.
Do you know what I love? I love to scroll through the #illustratedfaith hashtag on Instagram and see all of the amazing pages created by this community. I love seeing new twists on old ideas, adaptations of techniques and pairings I would never have dreamed of making before seeing your work. I love being inspired by your color schemes and your lettering and your drawing styles. Sometimes, a page resonates with me so much and speaks to me in so many ways, that I can’t wait to make something similar in the pages of my own Bible because I know God placed it in my path for a reason.
There is a misguided notion that if you aren’t creative enough, you should just find someone who is and copy their work. While I think that practicing their technique and learning a new process is wonderful, part of what makes this form of worship so compelling is that it IS so personal. I wish we could all stop worrying about how beautiful our pages are or how many likes it might get in a day and instead focus on how we are connecting to the Word of God and how it applies to our lives.
There is nothing wrong with inspiration. There is nothing wrong with practicing a new skill that someone outlined for you in the captions of their photos. There is nothing wrong with sharing the work of someone that you admire. There is, however, something wrong with not giving them appropriate credit or attempting to pass their work off as your own.
Here are a few tips on how to appropriately share the work of others AND how to protect your own work from people with bad intentions.
- Be aware that when you post images of your work on the internet or social media, they WILL be shared. If you mean for your pages to be private, you should keep them private. Any and all images shared on the internet (even in a private group) will at some point be shared. Someone will screenshot it for reference, or text it to a friend, or add it to a board on Pinterest.
- IF you share your images on the internet, you should protect them with a watermark. There are so many apps that make watermarking your images a simple process and you can be sure you will get credit for your work. Just this year, I started watermarking all of my Instagram images with my web address in a location that cannot easily be cropped out.
- If you find yourself inspired by the work of others, kindly mention them in the comments. I promise they would rather be tagged in one hundred comments than to see their ideas duplicated and passed off as someone else’s. I am inspired by other artists ALL THE TIME and I try to always mention them in the caption or a follow up comment – first because I want to make sure they get credit for their own ideas and second because it’s super flattering as an artist for someone to tell you how much they are inspired by your work.
- Just because you love someone’s idea or artwork, doesn’t mean you have to copy it verbatim. Is there another verse that is speaking to you where this image or technique might be perfect? Maybe you save the idea until you read a perfect verse with which to pair it. Maybe you just can’t help yourself and you have to recreate an exact replica. Either choose not to share that one on social media or put yourself out there and say “I was so overwhelmed by this amazing page that I just had to recreate it for myself. All credit goes to <insert your virtual BFF here>.” It happens (I’m guilty), just be sure to offer proper credit.
- If you are a regrammer and want to share someone else’s post with your followers, in addition to tagging them in a comment, be sure you keep the original photo caption along with the image. I know that it’s easy to get caught up in all the pretty pictures and to halfheartedly “like” everything that strikes our fancy, but the real art often exists in the captions. These girls are spending countless hours in the Word, studying and praying and learning all sorts of wonderful things and we do them a huge injustice by eliminating their words. Don’t just share their pretty picture, share their heart as well.
- And on the off-chance you do all of these things and still see your work on someone else’s feed as you scroll by? Just take a deep, cleansing breath and know that God sees you and knows your heart. He knows every single beautiful idea He’s gifted you with and He even knows that the other girl struggling for ideas is seeking Him in the only way she knows how. Even when we do everything right and still find ourselves frustrated, let’s offer grace.
