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ElfceltRJL

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My New Art Blog

1 min read
Like the political stuff you see here? Check out HENA Extended Release for more social critiques, improved advertisements, and cartoons!
xtendedrelease.wordpress.com/
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The question of copyrighting one's work is one of the very few issues in the world about which I still hold a "moderate" stance. One the one hand, an artist (be they cartoonist, musician, author) wants and should be compensated for their work. On the other hand, the goal of many artists is to spread their work to as broad an audience as possible.  As of now, my opinion changes on a case-by-case basis.
As a child, I was obsessed with the concept of copyrighting or somehow "protecting" my work—my drawings were a private thing, I did not ever want to see my cartoon characters conceived by the imaginations of my family and I reproduced in someone else's hand. To a seven-year-old with an anxiety disorder, seeing your original ideas bastardized by a classmate's sloppy hand triggered a sensation akin to gouging sporks into your eyes. My dad helped to calm me once by telling me that technically whatever I created, I owned, and no one could take that away from me. (As I got older I also realized that one could easily differentiate poor imitations from the real thing—I really shouldn't have worried about my ideas being stolen when the imitators just plain sucked.)
Nowadays, most likely in part because a great amount of my work is created for use in the public sphere, I am much more lax about who can distribute it and where it can be distributed. Perhaps because I am not spray-painting original characters onto walls or using them in promotional literature for academic conferences. My art has gotten more "universal," and in this way, more "accessible;" someone is more likely to enjoy/utilize a picture condemning Israeli Aparthied or drawings of recognizable world leaders than my original cartoon characters and their adventures. That I create things for an audience at this point in my life and work is not an inherently good or bad thing, simply a turn I have taken.
Following are three recent cases in which I judged the use of artwork and compensation on a case-by-case basis. A very nice guy from DeviantArt sent me a message asking if he could use my drawing of a guillotine on a t-shirt for school. (I had no idea where that was headed, but I cooperated because you don't fuck with Madame la Guillotine.) We came up with an agreement that he could use the image if it wasn't altered for the most part, and if my name and/or web address could be put somewhere on the shirt. I think we reached a good compromise: in the end he got to use my drawing for free, and I got free (on my part) exposure. (And a student group that uses a bloody guillotine for their club t-shirts... that's just fucking awesome.)
I ask for money from those who can afford it, or take how much one is willing to pay. I have started asking to be paid for my commissions by the local theater in my town whose posters I have been designing for years. I thought a small amount of money per drawing would be a fair compensation, since I work on deadline, follow graphic specifications, and am advertising for already-existing theater plays which, were the theater not using my logos, would charge the community theater for the right to utilize the copyrighted graphics of Music Theater International or other said company for the purposes of publicity. Someone asked me if I would continue designing logos even if I weren't compensated fairly. The answer is that I probably would, for the love of it, but the fact is that I need to eat. I need to buy art supplies. I need to pay off thousands upon thousands of dollars in student loans.
In terms of educational materials and the distribution of radical literature, I am of the opinion that we (of the revolutionary school of thought) should help each other out where it's possible. A friend of mine recently turned an entire book into a .pdf file and e-mailed it to every social justice group in which he is involved. I devoured this book, and agreed that it was useful and should be read by anyone identifying as progressive. Photocopying and distributing a copyrighted book is probably illegal. The author wrote the book, however, to deliver his message to an audience as wide as possible. This was accomplished through the photocopying and e-mailing to hundreds of young activists. (Another friend of ours added that he knew the author, and in his opinion, the author would be fine with our decision.)
What are your thoughts?
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What's Up Now

2 min read
Hi folks, I hope at least one of you has been wondering where I've gone off to during the past four months... hopefully my long DeviantArt absence will be coming to a close this summer. I was in Argentina for three amazing months but without a scanner, and my dad's home computer with the art programs (and my artwork) on it just crashed. D'oh! I've brought my school scanner up to my bedroom, which I've noticed sucks out quite a lot of color, but I can at least post some of the black and white artwork.

Some things I've been working on/you will see this summer:

-A logo for the theater production Cabaret
-A logo for a fall 2009 Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions conference at Hampshire College
-Sneak peeks at an entry for the spring 2010 Hampshire College Commencement poster
-A totally farcical, non-political comic book about Che and Fidel, which will hopefully be finished in time to exhibit at the Small Press Expo this fall in Bethesda, Maryland (fingers crossed!)
-Alongside my “real” job, I take commissions for jewelry, and am saving up for a snazzy camera so I can build a website and start selling on-line.

...Oh, and, you know, that whole “paying off student loans” thing... I just have the fun stuff listed here. Please keep me in mind if you are looking to commission anyone for logos, paintings, etc.

Love, Hannah (Anita)
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The IDF has spread leaflets all over Gaza with a number people are supposed to call to rat out Hamas members. (Medical care has been denied to some desperately sick Palestinians until they give up names.) Instead of calling the hotline and asking the Israelis if they had Prince Albert in a can, I decided to be an adult and actually report some terrorists. Here is what I said:

Hello Sir,

my name is Hannah, and I am a white American calling to inform you about some terrorist organizations in Israel that you may not be aware of.

Sir, I am afraid that the Nazis may have risen again under your very nose. I am afraid that they may have risen again because of the obsession in your country with ethnic cleansing, your insistence on a racial hierarchy. I was uncomfortable the minute I stepped into Ben-Gurion Airport. You did your best to make me, a non-Jew, feel unwelcome. Your security guards, asking why I didn't speak Hebrew and why I had an unfamiliar (Scottish) name, conveyed with their questions and preceding thorough search of my bags that I had no business in your country because I did not belong to your ethnicity and religion. I am afraid because you detained my friend at the Jordanian border for eight hours because he had an Arab surname, despite the fact that he was a U.S. citizen born and raised in California.

Sir, I am afraid that the Nazis may have risen again because every single day Palestinian children in the West Bank are spat on as they walk to school, called “whores” and “dirty Arabs” by Jewish settlers, who believe that the Arabs whose country they have stolen are of an inferior race.

I am afraid because the cameras in towns like Hebron are on all the time, watching Palestinians' every move, but when a settler throws a brick at a child or kicks a woman, it is as if the cameras have turned off and did not see anything.

Sir, I am afraid that the Nazis may have risen again because of the pogroms in Akka, Hebron and Nablus. I am afraid of these terrorists you are not catching because these mobs of Jewish settlers burn down Arab houses, destroy Arab businesses, throw bricks at children, and aim to kill. I am afraid because I see Kryshtallnacht again, and I am afraid because you do not. I am afraid that the Nazis may have risen again because during these pogroms, your soldiers stand still and do nothing to stop the mobs.

I am afraid because you offer segregated tours of Israel through a program called Birthright, encouraging Jews to settle in Israel and populate the country with more Jewish children, so as to wipe out the Palestinians. I am afraid because these impressionable youths get their heads filled with a sunny interpretation of segregation, with the notion that they are innocent of all blame and that the land is theirs to take.

I am afraid that the Nazis may have risen again because you are inflicting a Holocaust upon Gaza. I am afraid the Nazis may have risen again because you can still sleep at night, because you justify this genocide upon the Palestinians. I am afraid that the Nazis may have risen again because you do not see this at all.

I hope I have been of help to you in identifying terrorists in Israel.

(Here is the number you dial from the U.S.: 011-972-2-5839749 Tie up those phone lines! Call and order a large cheese pizza! Call with a German accent trying to reach your Aunt Mergatroyd in Berlin! Pretend you're working for a phone sex hotline! Call with a Hebrew accent and pretend you're questioning people at airport security: "What ahr you doing in Israel?" Call in a Darth Vadar voice and congratulate the army for doing such a good job founding and keeping up such an evil, evil nation! Just tie up those phone lines!)

(By the way, they asked me if I was an Arab.)
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Gaza Holocaust

2 min read
Raise your hand if you are tired of the hundreds (disproportionately Palestinians) dying, of your friends in Gaza telling you goodbye now because they are not sure if they'll be gunned down next. From my friend Ahmad yesterday and today:

December 27 at 6:56am
THE DEATH !!!!!!!!!

REALLY WE ARE DYING HERE

2 OF MY FRIEND DEAD TODAY

OPPPPPS WHILE I WRITE THIS WALL ANOTHER PUMP ............

SEE U ALL IN THE UTHER LIFE

PEACE



December 28 at 5:41pm
Dear Hannah,

it's happend .My univesity is destroyed . before 5 min ago

when i will finish my study now ???!!!!!!!

please speard this news about the UNV.



...Oh, and if I hear any more honkies talking about how "BOTH sides are being hurt in the conflict", I will make you grow a weave and then I will rip it out. To everyone in Palestine: may God keep you and your families safe, I hope you are out of harm's way and God willing the slaughter will stop soon. My prayers and love are with you. To all the anti-Zionists in Israel: thank you for continuing to stand up to your country's imperialist policies. A hero is someone who has every privilege at his disposal but chooses to live the harder life, fighting for what is right. In solidarity,

Hannah
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Featured

My New Art Blog by ElfceltRJL, journal

On Copyright, Copyleft, and the Artists' Dilemma by ElfceltRJL, journal

What's Up Now by ElfceltRJL, journal

My Prank Call to the IDF by ElfceltRJL, journal

Gaza Holocaust by ElfceltRJL, journal