Originally published at Gibberings. You can comment here or there.

…is snatched, screaming, from between gnashing mandibles. I am
coated in protective, propulsive mucus and I skid across my hardwood
floors, headfirst into paintings like this. At this point, the piece
could go either way. There are certainly…elements, ones that need
to be addressed. I never paint from photographs, so this is odd for
me. On the left there, you can see a woodblock with some fanart, a
tiny canvas with impressions from a webcam session, and, vaguely,
Jhonen’s masterpiece (it has maracas). The dog tags belong to a
friend who is shipping out for Iraq soon, and will be coming back to
pick them up when he’s done mucking around out there, building sand
castles.

Tags: art, artwork, oil paint, painting, uncategorized

Originally published at Gibberings. You can comment here or there.

I’m in the throes of deciding which half-finished paintings get
priority, and which go to which September art show (there are two,
overlapping, meaning I must split up everything that isn’t a print).
Methods of “dealing” have included shoving every bit of clutter into
the bedroom and shutting the door on it, and just focusing on keeping
the main staging grounds relatively rubbery, and workable. On the far
left, in the square canvas on the pretty easel, is Oil and Hell in the
Sky, a commission at a particularly awkward stage in development. The
big guy is the Vacuum Traffic Controller, who has acquired a
background since this was taken. His end is in sight. The thing
behind him is another giant portrait in the very beginning stages of
development, tentatively titled “the Priesthood”. On the drafting
table, painted on a particle board roundel, is the Cardiographer. The
white rectangle above her is one third of another commission, an
undead triptych with Catholic flair.

Tags: artwork, cardiographer, oil, painting, vacuum traffic controller

Originally published at Gibberings. You can comment here or there.

oil on canvas
2 x 2″
$65 

SOLD

Tags: art, canvas, chain, lipstick, monocle, oil, painting, red, yellow

On May 3, Goldman's publicity agent announced that Goldman and Kelly had reached a settlement. Goldman would pay Kelly the money he earned from the paintings. Kelly agreed to drop his protest.

But some damage had already been done.

Solomon said that several galleries stopped showing Goldman's work. And the wholesalers who buy Goldman's posters canceled their orders and asked for refunds for unsold stock.

"I lost the three biggest poster distributors in America, " Solomon said. He wouldn't say how much money he and Goldman may have lost.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/08/Tampabay/Artist_s_work_looked_.shtml

Tags: art, boys are stupid throw rocks at them, cease and desist, copying, dave kelly, email, flash, goliath, lawsuits, lenore, myspace, painting, plagiarism, purple pussy, roman dirge, shmorky, something awful, t-shirts, table of malcontents, todd goldman, wired

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DAVID KELLY AND TODD GOLDMAN REACH AGREEMENT ON PAINTING

MAY 2, 2007

Artists David Kelly and Todd Goldman have agreed to settle and end the recent claim that Mr. Goldman utilized an image and caption belonging to Mr. Kelly in an original painting without his permission. In early April, an internet site noted the similarity of a recent Goldman painting to a web cartoon panel produced six years ago by Mr. Kelly. Mr. Goldman has agreed to pay Mr. Kelly the full proceeds from the sale of the two paintings in exchange for a perpetual non-exclusive license for the image and its caption (“the “Work”). “It was a mistake on my part to not research the source for this Work which was sent to me over the internet by a friend. “Until a few weeks ago, I had no knowledge of Mr. Kelly or his body of online cartoon and animation work,” said Goldman.

Mr. Kelly has accepted Mr. Goldman's explanation and payment of the license fee and calls for the internet sites and all interested parties to acknowledge that Mr. Goldman’s use of the Work was an unintentional legitimate mistake and that there should be no further debate on the matter. Mr. Goldman’s two paintings which depict Mr. Kelly’s image and caption have a legally valid and enforceable license from Mr. Kelly. Mr. Goldman has agreed that he will not paint this image for any future commissions or exhibitions or otherwise use it for any further commercial purposes. Each of the artists have declared their intention to move on in their respective fields and encourage their supporters, friends, and patrons to do likewise.


# # # # #
For further information, please contact:
AR american rebel pr
1509 N. Crescent Heights Blvd. #5
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 656-5020: Phone
(323) 656-5021: Fax

The original SA thread has been deleted.  Hopefully Tyndall and his mirrors were keeping their Goldman pages up to date.  I'm not pleased with this solution, frankly.  Shmorky has taken himself out of the running in terms of a class action, and our questions about Wassco, Dirge, and etc. remain unanswered.

Tags: art, boys are stupid throw rocks at them, cease and desist, copying, dave kelly, email, flash, goliath, lawsuits, lenore, myspace, painting, plagiarism, purple pussy, roman dirge, shmorky, something awful, t-shirts, table of malcontents, todd goldman, wired

Some quick updates, since I've been busy and haven't caught up with the SA thread in a few days:

1. Goldman's "Goodbye Bambi" logo has been removed from his site, following a post by goons.  There was much discussion on SA about the hair trigger of the Disney legal team, and the Disney "piracy hotline" was called.  As reluctant as I am to reinforce Disney's megalomaniacal grip on ancient intellectual property, I think the ends justify the means in this case.

2. The giant Todd Goldman evidence repository located at Mike Tyndall's site is now being mirrored at ThirdProject.net.

3. What the fuck, can't he even spell "weenie" right?

4. Stickypig has suggested to me that Goldman is pulling the biggest performance art stunt ever devised.  It is, in fact, more difficult to trace five images to create a shitty cartoon, than it is to simply draw a new one.  Does this say something profound about the "remix culture", or is Goldman just a psychopath?  Goon Mythrandir has a similar hypothesis:

It's no secret that he's an asshole, but I just realized that everything I've heard about this guy doing-- from his art thievery down to his bullshit interview comments and asshole behavior when cornered-- is complete douchebaggery. Which got me thinking; maybe he's actually a brilliant artist, and his real "art" is that he's become the ultimate despicable character and wants to see how the world reacts.

It's the only logical explanation for how someone can be "the perfect asshole;" down to the most mundane detail of their lives. That takes effort, and a real asshole would need to have at least a couple redeeming (or at least neutral) qualities. I'll bet he even has an "asshole" way of making sandwiches or starting his car or something.

5. Kelly states that he cannot discuss details of the case, and will not speak to the press at this time.

6. The Consumerist is on board.

7. Kelly also confirms that Chris Wass of Wassco (original artist from which a great deal of Goldman's tracings have come) has been contacted about all this, and should not be sent any more email on the subject.

8. Goldman is now altering existing designs on his site, such as changing the face on this clipart fat kid, (original can be seen on the magnet, new face [taken from the Boys Are Stupid image] on the sticker) presumably to make them "different" enough to pass as original work in court.

9. The comment thread at Table of Malcontents is alive and simmering with rage, albeit with the absence of commentor "Totally Wrong", lone defender of Goldman, who had his IP traced to davidandgoliath.com. 

10. In the case of Rogers vs. Koons, (thanks, goon ruth232) we find hope for a reasonable outcome, should Dave vs. Goliath go to court: The Court found both "substantial similarity" and that there was access to the picture. The similarity was so close that the average lay person would recognize the copying. Thus the sculpture was found to be a copy of Rogers' work.

11. On April 26, Kelly closes the thread and says there will be an update on the weekend or the following Monday (April 30).  But...no update yet.  We're rooting for you, Shmorky.

This list has been added to the megapost, and crossposted to my website.

Tags: art, boys are stupid throw rocks at them, cease and desist, copying, dave kelly, email, flash, goliath, lawsuits, lenore, myspace, painting, plagiarism, purple pussy, roman dirge, shmorky, something awful, t-shirts, table of malcontents, todd goldman, wired

This information has been added to the main post as well.

More evidence that Goldman is sockpuppeting his own defense:

"Totally Wrong's IP is 216.199.39.18."

That's Tampa Bay, Florida.

Which by an astonishing coincidence is Todd's locality. See

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2416213&perpage=40&pagenumber=28#post325764257

for his email headers, showing that his mailserver is at 216.199.185.166 (smtp.davidandgoliathtees.com

Note that all 216.199.x.y addresses are part of the same netblock belonging to FDN:

http://geotool.servehttp.com/whois/?query=216.199.39.18

BUSTED AGAIN ASSHOLE!!!!

Posted by: DaveK | Apr 24, 2007 6:58:12 PM

As reported by goon Scaramouche, AnimationGallery.com, a fine art lithograph distributor, has removed their Goldman section, and posted this message:

Due to the recent postings regarding Todd Goldman's artwork,
we are not showing his art until we have resolution from the distributor.
If you have any concerns, please do not email us. Instead, contact S2 directly.

Tags: art, boys are stupid throw rocks at them, cease and desist, copying, dave kelly, email, flash, goliath, lawsuits, lenore, myspace, painting, plagiarism, purple pussy, roman dirge, shmorky, something awful, t-shirts, table of malcontents, todd goldman, wired

UPDATED MAY 3rd, 11AM: See bottom of post. 

Crossposted to my website.

Todd Goldman, aka "Goliath", maker of the eponymous "Boys Are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them" t-shirt, stands accused by artists and the internet of mass plagiarism.  His lawyers sent me and my editor at Wired a cease and desist in regards to an article I posted about certain allegations being made against him.  That article has now been taken down, and replaced with an image of the C&D that I received.  Here is a Google cache of the original post.

This was not my decision, it was the decision of the Wired higher-ups, who were advised to do so by their legal counsel.  I have been firmly instructed not to post anything else regarding Goldman on Wired.  The C&D does not address my website, LiveJournal, or any other venue.

This is the straight poop.

A few days ago I posted an article on the Wired blog I work for, Table of Malcontents.  The post was on the subject of Mr. Goldmann's run-in with internet-famous cartoonist, Dave Kelly aka "Shmorky".  Dave Kelly is the creator of the Purple Pussy webcomic and Something Awful's excellent flash animation column, the Flash Tub. 

On April 6th, 2007, Kelly posted in the Something Awful forums about the stunning similarity between one of Goldman's recent paintings, and a Purple Pussy panel from 2001.

Here is a screencap of the MySpace message.  Here is a paste of the email, with full headers.

The "pedophile" art in question was a forgotten archive of commissioned work that Kelly had created, to spec, for various clients, as freelance artists sometimes must do.  The owner of seth.beepboopinternet.com has since posted an apology in the SA thread for (however unwittingly) giving Goldman any sort of ammunition, voiced his unflagging support of Kelly, and deleted the directory in question. 

It is notable that Goldman sent this email, with links to pornography, to several minors.  This is in violation of MySpace's Terms of Service, and caused Goldman's account to be deleted.

The "toddharrisgoldman" profile address was parked by a goon and filled with comparison shots between Goldman work and the original work of myriad artists.  The goon lost control of the account, which was then presumably handed over to Goldman, and filled with obscene material.

Just afterwards, many MySpace profiles of those who spoke out against Goldman, or who were fans of Kelly, were phished, destroyed (all friends and formatting deleted), and some even replaced with an image stating "TODD WAS HERE".  This image was hosted on Goldman's server, as shown by this screenshot.  The image has since been deleted, but the MySpace accounts cannot be restored.  Victims who contacted MySpace abuse were sent a useless boilerplate.

Yesterday I was able to talk to a source at MySpace who assured me that the profile hijacking bore all the hallmarks of hacking/phishing, and were almost certainly not an inside job.  Furthermore, he described the main MySpace abuse address as a "bottomless pit" and advised all those with phishing grievances to make sure and select "Reporting Abuse" and then "Phishing/Fake Logins" as the nature of the complaint on this page.

Meanwhile, coder Mike Tyndall is busily constructing a massive archive of all images, information, and links relevant to the accusation that Goldman is stealing.  While the Dear God painting is most similar to its supposed source material, there is a vast trove of other parallels drawn between Goldman's work, and older material by other artists.  These images and artists include Roman Dirge's goth comic book character "Lenore", Jim Bent's "Happy Bunny" slogans, Liz Greenfield's "Stuff Sucks" goldfish, Blank Generation Shirts, Threadless Shirts, Windows 3.1, American Apparel, School House Rock, a cartoonist named Kramer from Mitre Magazine, T-ShirtHumor.com, Busted Tees, and a dozen artists who've been lost in the seas of time and internet.

Tyndall was threatened with a C&D from the Goldman legal team on April 19th, and has altered the text of his page to remove anything that could be regarded as libelous.  He continues to update. 

But this, ladies and gentlemen, is the piece de resistance.  As mentioned at the beginning of this post, Goldman's magnum opus is the "Boys Are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them" logo seen on millions of babydoll t-shirts worn by 13-year-old girls.  The Something Awful Goons have come through yet again, and decided to show us this image:


LINKS and REFERENCE

1.  Purple Pussy [a webcomic by Dave Kelly]
--- a. Dear God, Make Everyone Die, Amen  This is the panel in question.

2. Holy cow, Todd (Goliath) Goldman ripped me off! [Something Awful forums] 
This gigantic thread is updated constantly, and is the best source for super-current information.

3. Todd Goldman: Art Thief? [Mike Tyndall]
This is currently the most comprehensive archive of Dave vs. Goliath evidence and information, and is updated regularly.

4. David & Goliath: Shameless Art Thievery, Ahoy [Wired] 
See Google's cache of the original post here.
This is my post at Table of Malcontents, now replaced by the C&D image.  Has a thriving comment section full of stuff by a commentor called Totally Wrong that seems like it is from Goldman direct.

5. Kind of a Big Dealio [LiveJournal]
Roman Dirge addresses the Goldman issues and relates the specifics of the Lenore case.

UPDATES

MAY 3rd, 11AM:

1. Goldman's "Goodbye Bambi" logo has been removed from his site, following a post by goons.  There was much discussion on SA about the hair trigger of the Disney legal team, and the Disney "piracy hotline" was called.  As reluctant as I am to reinforce Disney's megalomaniacal grip on ancient intellectual property, I think the ends justify the means in this case.

2. The giant Todd Goldman evidence repository located at Mike Tyndall's site is now being mirrored at ThirdProject.net.

3. What the fuck, can't he even spell "weenie" right?

4. Stickypig has suggested to me that Goldman is pulling the biggest performance art stunt ever devised.  It is, in fact, more difficult to trace five images to create a shitty cartoon, than it is to simply draw a new one.  Does this say something profound about the "remix culture", or is Goldman just a psychopath?  Goon Mythrandir has a similar hypothesis:

It's no secret that he's an asshole, but I just realized that everything I've heard about this guy doing-- from his art thievery down to his bullshit interview comments and asshole behavior when cornered-- is complete douchebaggery. Which got me thinking; maybe he's actually a brilliant artist, and his real "art" is that he's become the ultimate despicable character and wants to see how the world reacts.

It's the only logical explanation for how someone can be "the perfect asshole;" down to the most mundane detail of their lives. That takes effort, and a real asshole would need to have at least a couple redeeming (or at least neutral) qualities. I'll bet he even has an "asshole" way of making sandwiches or starting his car or something.

5. Kelly states that he cannot discuss details of the case, and will not speak to the press at this time.

6. The Consumerist is on board.

7. Kelly also confirms that Chris Wass of Wassco (original artist from which a great deal of Goldman's tracings have come) has been contacted about all this, and should not be sent any more email on the subject.

8. Goldman is now altering existing designs on his site, such as changing the face on this clipart fat kid, (original can be seen on the magnet, new face [taken from the Boys Are Stupid image] on the sticker) presumably to make them "different" enough to pass as original work in court.

9. The comment thread at Table of Malcontents is alive and simmering with rage, albeit with the absence of commentor "Totally Wrong", lone defender of Goldman, who had his IP traced to davidandgoliath.com. 

10. In the case of Rogers vs. Koons, (thanks, goon ruth232) we find hope for a reasonable outcome, should Dave vs. Goliath go to court: The Court found both "substantial similarity" and that there was access to the picture. The similarity was so close that the average lay person would recognize the copying. Thus the sculpture was found to be a copy of Rogers' work.

11. On April 26, Kelly closes the thread and says there will be an update on the weekend or the following Monday (April 30).  But...no update yet.  We're rooting for you, Shmorky.

APRIL 24TH, 9PM:
More evidence that Goldman is sockpuppeting his own defense:

"Totally Wrong's IP is 216.199.39.18."

That's Tampa Bay, Florida.

Which by an astonishing coincidence is Todd's locality. See

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2416213&perpage=40&pagenumber=28#post325764257

for his email headers, showing that his mailserver is at 216.199.185.166 (smtp.davidandgoliathtees.com

Note that all 216.199.x.y addresses are part of the same netblock belonging to FDN:

http://geotool.servehttp.com/whois/?query=216.199.39.18

BUSTED AGAIN ASSHOLE!!!!

Posted by: DaveK [editor's note: I do not believe this commentor is Dave Kelly] | Apr 24, 2007 6:58:12 PM

As reported by goon Scaramouche, AnimationGallery.com, a fine art lithograph distributor, has removed their Goldman section, and posted this message:

Due to the recent postings regarding Todd Goldman's artwork,
we are not showing his art until we have resolution from the distributor.
If you have any concerns, please do not email us. Instead, contact S2 directly.

Tags: art, boys are stupid throw rocks at them, cease and desist, copying, dave kelly, email, flash, goliath, lawsuits, lenore, myspace, painting, plagiarism, purple pussy, roman dirge, shmorky, something awful, t-shirts, table of malcontents, todd goldman, wired

How It Lives

From vebelfetzer.


A stinking, toxic, kinetic representation of my neural pathways. I don't think this piece will go up during this month's shows, but probably at the next show, yes. This city has enough coffee shops to keep me hanging paintings for years.

Except I really don't want to test that theory. Everyone blast some hobo loft vibes my way, and damn the torpedoes.

Tags: oil paint, painting, samantha, the cardiographer, work in progress
Current Location: send help
Current Music: Carter Burwell - Evasion and Escape

The Cardiographer

From vebelfetzer.


State secret: I don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing. I'm an art school drop out, and I went to a shitty school in the first place. My theories about painting are wrestled sideways from a decade of digital coloring. This is a hypothetical underpainting for what will, hypothetically, be a rendering of human skin. Ish.

Tags: oil paint, painting, samantha, the cardiographer, work in progress
Current Music: Conjure One - Center of the Sun