Intellectual Property

I had an interesting conversation with a weaving friend this afternoon, about teaching and intellectual property. Quite specifically, my friend said she thinks I have little respect for intellectual property because I took a class from her a couple of years ago in which we did woven shibori, and now I make and sell woven shibori. The fact is, I had Catherine Ellis' Woven Shibori book well before taking that class, and the class was merely a vehicle to jump start me into something I was going to do anyway. My friend did not teach me how to weave, the simple drafts we used, taken from Catherine's book, were simple weaving drafts in the public domain.

This friend would doubtless have even greater difficulties with this issue were she to investigate all the open source information on the internet these days, plus the fact that folks like me post photos and explanations of how to do things, woven shibori and otherwise. I feel we're all learning from each other. I wonder whether Catherine Ellis would feel that my friend had no respect for intellectual property because she now teaches a process that Catherine developed!

I try not to step on toes but I'm wondering how much this person might be feeling threatened by me. I did point out to her that while I am working at my art with the intention of selling it, her prerogative, in fact, is to be teaching the making of art. And that it might behoove her to loosen up her ideas of intellectual property, since in all likelihood some people are going to go forward with something they've "learned" from her.

Teachers have to be willing to let go of thinking that they own what they teach, to avoid becoming parochial (limited or narrow in scope or outlook). I make this as a general statement, yet it aptly describes what I dislike about the local guild I am in the process of divorcing myself from. There's no sense here of fostering artistic growth. In my guild, it's more like, "I'm teaching you this and you'd better not aim to do more with it than become a hobbyist or a dabbler, someone who collects information and techniques but never pushes the envelope."

In contrast, what I'm loving about blogging and having worldwide contacts of weavers and surface design artists, is that we're openly sharing information and ideas, inspiring each other, supporting each other, and reflecting objectivity and perspective.

So anyway, my friend said now she has to find some other weaving thing to focus on, since this is a small community and there apparently isn't enough room for two woven shibori artists here. No matter our work is different, our aesthetic is different, our dyes are different, and our marketing focus is different. The thing is, I highly suspect there are other woven shibori weavers in this area...matter of fact, there are many more fiber artists in Humboldt County than the 50 or so who belong to the guild at any one time. None of the better ones belong to the guild, and for obvious reasons.

Feels like excellent timing for me to be pulling out.