Monday, June 3, 2013

"Blue Skies", Show acceptance and there is a first for everything!


"Blue Skies" 6" x 9" watercolor by Carrie Waller
Here is the last of my rainbow bottle series "Blue Skies".  The last one for a while.  I have the coolest idea for a painting, and it will be my next painting after I finish moving!  Trust me I would much rather be painting.  Doing a self move is painful folks.  I have gained a huge respect for movers and am more than grateful to my amazing mother-in-law for putting on her Super Mom cape and saving the day.  She  came in and packed a majority of our house while watching our rug rats so that we could load and unload stuff at the new house.  Our saving grace is that we are only moving up the street.  The life of the military, we can now check of DITY (Do It Yourself) move off our list--well we will be able to check it off next week, I'll let you know if we survive:)
"Reminiscence" watercolor by Carrie Waller accepted into the 43rd Mid Southern Watercolor Society's  Exhibit.
I also got word that my painting "Reminiscence" has been accepted into the 43rd Mid Southern Watercolor Society's exhibit.  I had a first experience with this show.  The show coordinator called me to let me know the only reason she didn't accept "Anticipation" is because of trademark issues.  I'm assuming that is a legit concern but since that painting has been published in Watercolor Artist, Splash 14, and a different Ball jar painting was accepted into NWS's show I was a little surprised.  So one more thing to think about.  She also didn't accept another artist's painting with Coca Cola bottles (not mine).  I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.  I think it would be extremely difficult to eliminate all trademarked items from still life paintings.
"Anticipation" my painting rejected for trademark issues
Carrie

8 comments:

  1. I sympathize with your move - having moved... uh... 10 times without movers, and never having had them..... it's not easy! But you'll get through it. Yay, Grandma! And yes, I have heard about the trademarking thing, and have been advised that my liquor bottle paintings would have problems... I hear you. What are we to do? Well, sell them without going into shows, probably! You'll sell them. They are awesome.

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  2. Something to ck out for sure.

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  3. Hope you get all settled soon, I know what moving is like! Thank God for wonderful mothers-in-law :-) I follow Neil Hollingsworth's blog, an oil painter who paints trademarked vintage things all the time. Maybe he would have advice.
    http://neilhollingsworth.blogspot.com/

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  4. Hi Carrie,
    Working in art licensing for a number of years. I have done quite a bit of research on trademark and copyright issues. You are not infringing on any trademark associated with the Ball jar company. You would only be violating their trademark if you were to produce canning jars and use the same or very similar logo on the same or similar product as they manufacture. As an artist using a product like the Ball jar in your work, you are using what is called “fair use” which allows an artist to use a trademarked item in your own art which you can sell. It can get a little gray if your were to utilize this image extensively for commercial use and merchandising, but your aren’t. For example, if your were to put the image on mugs and sell those, however, you would have to sell a huge quantity for there to be an issue. Andy Warhol didn’t violate the Campbell Soup trademark or the Brillo Pad mark in his work either.
    Maybe this particular society has a policy on not allowing depictions of trademarked products in their show, but they wouldn’t be violating any trademark issues by displaying it just as you are not violating any by using the jars in your art. Hope this helps! :-)

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  5. Congratulations Carrie! Well deserved. Good luck with getting settled in.

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  6. Oh Carrie! I just love Reminiscence! So beautiful! Of course, your work is always gorgeous.

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  7. Sympathize with the pain of moving yourself. We have never had professional movers, but suspect we will when we hit retirement. Lugging all those boxes and pieces of furniture just doesn't have the same appeal as it did when we were young!!

    As for the reluctance of the watercolor society to show your Ball jars -- I suspect someone with the best intentions to protect their group, but a poor understanding of copyright and trademark matters, is behind the decision. I've never had any problem with my Peeps paintings, even the ones that showed the labelled box.

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  8. LOVE "Anticipation". I agree with the other gals here-should not be a problem. Too bad for them.

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