ART GROUPS FROM HELL

As I said, there have been tons of things happening:  the wonderful Keys 4 Art Retreat, new house, new studio....  But I am going to share the latest with you as I find it to be an interesting topic regarding art groups, the internet and women in general.

I had heard about a Facebook group called Curse of the Crafter.  Now with a name like that you KNOW I had to go check it out.  I asked to join, was admitted and scanned the posts.  Very talented ladies, beautiful paper crafting projects.... but .... and you KNOW there had to be a "but" or I would not be writing about it right?

Some of the women in this group where using this forum to trash Paper Phenomenon and Kathy Orta.  Well, as most of you know I happen to love the Paper Phenomenon Projects and feel Kathy is a wonderful person.  Quirky and high maintenance!!!  But sweet and with a heart the size of her incredible talent.

One of the ladies (who ended up being super-sweet) said something about how Jenn (Kathy's assistant) had been really rude to her and that Kathy had written her and apologized for any inconvenience she had with the site (which, granted, should have been Jenn's first statement to her) but she was still unhappy with Kathy.  So I commented.... something like ... well, if what you were looking for was an apology and you received it... why keep bashing Kathy?

WHAM!!!!  Attack of the bitches!!!  LMAO!!!  I was literally attacked by these women as to how horrible Paper Phenomenon and Kathy are!!!  (So much for free speech!!).  There was one voice of reason in the group who said that everyone could say what they felt and "vent" and they would all just move on.  Well, obviously, that did not apply to me!!  LOL!!!

Those of you who know me know that I can't STAND anything that is unfair to someone.  I am a firm believer that if you have nothing nice to say you shouldn't say a damned thing!  So, of course I could not just drop it and spent several HOURS debating the propriety of bashing people in a group that is supposed to be an art group.

I finally decided that arguing with walls was quite psychotic so I opted to just say "let's agree to disagree" and everything seemed to wind down.  Then I get a message from one of the ladies from the group telling me I had been booted from the group!!!  LMAO!!!

I had to laugh when one lady (who also seemed quite nice actually) came back to say that I was probably just trying to "rile" them up into saying something I could use to file a law suit against them!!!  LMAO!!!  Really?????

Obviously they looked me up and knew I am an attorney.  What the HELL does that have to do with my love for art?  Anyway, I am pretty sure I know where that came from.  There is a wonderful paper artist out there who was using a trademark that did not belong to her.  I wrote her about it and she, to her credit, immediately removed it from her site.  However, apparently she is not happy with me and is part of that group.  No matter how many times I pointed out that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, that I would respect theirs but wanted to be respected if my opinion was different - it came coming back in the gist of "how dare you say you like her".....

Oh well, their loss.

Anyway, the point of this rant this morning is to point out a few things:

a.  Art groups should be about ART.  Not a forum to test out who can be the biggest bitch.  (Frankly, I could take them ALL on!!!)

b.  If you don't like a particular artist for whatever reason, you are certainly not obligated to take her classes or buy her tutorials right?   MOVE ON.

c.  I don't know whether any of these ladies actually had a bad experience with PP or Kathy but I CAN tell you that one of them was outright lying.  She claimed that she was banned from the group for asking a question in the class.  I was ON that class (on UStream) and that is an absolute lie.  Why would she do that?  I guess just to continue to have fodder to trash PP and Kathy with.

Listen, at the end of the day, as women, life is hard enough.  These online art groups should be a place to come and commiserate with other women whose lives have more in common with each other than not.  It should be a place to come and vent about every day nonsense that we as  women need to vent about.  It should not be "bitchfest".  

I have never understood why women are like this.  If we as women don't respect each other - how in the world are men ever going to do it???????

So, lesson learned.  I will stick with my peeps and my group.

Have a blessed day everyone.