Why All This is For Free


     My MANIPULATED POLAROID caricatures of celebrities can make them look unattractive to say the least. The very idea of asking for Brian DePalma's permission to publish a picture of him with his head turned into a dick is also unattractive to say the least. I'm actually a big fan of Brian DePalma, but if I were him, even I would say no. You can't ask permission to make fun of someone, especially if you're going to be cruel. 

    Hence, I do not have signed releases from any of my subjects. I'm a professional journalist working in Hollywood. Most of these pictures were taken at press conferences. Since I was invited to take these pictures of people who are clearly public figures, I always imagined that the subjects would have no grounds for a legal complaint simply because the shot didn't turn out as flattering as they expected. Also, I would have thought the Supreme Court decision in the People vs. Larry Flynt case protected satire like mine. 

    Wrong, say the lawyers in the publishing world. If someone doesn't like their image, they can sue. Thus, nobody will publish my Polaroids. Either that, or they just don't like my work. 

    My RUBBER STAMP ART is created entirely with commercially available rubber stamps that I purchased from stores or catalogues. All these stamps contain images that were not created by me. I have merely pressed them onto ink pads, then applied them to paper, combining them in new relationships. The only purpose of a rubber stamp is to mechanically reproduce an image. You would think that buying a particular rubber stamp logically implies permission to reproduce the image that is on the stamp. 

    Wrong, say the lawyers in the publishing world. If the original artist who created the stamp is unhappy with the way I have used their product, they can sue. Thus, nobody will publish my rubber stamp art. Either that, or they just don't like my work. 

    You see my problem. I've sold more than 1,500 pieces of journalism in my life. My words have been published in everything from laserdiscs to library anthologies to annual hardcovers to national monthlies to local weeklies and dailies. But so far in my baffling career as a visual artist, the lawyers have won. Galleries will not show me and publishers will not print me. 

    If I were an artist who used oils or pencils creating these very same images, I would be in no trouble at all. Hirshfeld does not get signed releases from his subjects. Neither did Andy Warhol. The fact that my work is based upon photographs, or commercially available rubber stamps, makes them problematic. This mindless technical loophole, combined with an unwholesome fear of lawsuits, has doomed my work to obscurity. I've been doing this for 20 years. Have you heard of me? 

    I've already been paid for all my journalism, so there's no reason not to make it available free on the Internet for those who may have missed it the first time. 

    As for my art...well fuck 'em. Fuck the galleries. Fuck the publishers. Fuck the rubber stamp companies. Fuck the lawyers. I'm giving my art away on the Internet. What have I got to lose? The originals are just sitting in my closet. As for the celebrities themselves in the Polaroids, fuck them too if they can't take a joke. As for the artists who created the original art on the rubber stamps, if they don't like the way I've reproduced their art, I advise them to stop selling devices whose only function is the reproduction of their art. Why should they make anything off this? I'm not. In fact, it's costing me. 

    I've also included a few pictures of inanimate objects. Here's Century City. I assume it won't sue.