xstacey

To my surprise, the idiots at DA finally realized I had another photograph in my gallery that offends them.  I was wondering how long it would take.

This photo was of a decayed opossum, taken very artistically.  It was just bones and hair, and, in my own artist's opinion, a fitting tribute to the death of a living thing.

I'm a buddhist, not some sick, sadistic weirdo.  I honor living things, and part of that honor comes with death.  But no one on the staff seems to realize that.

As I've said in the past, I will no longer post my work on this community.  My serious pieces are not respected, and that is highly offensive to me.

The only reason I am leaving up what I have previously posted is so that hopefully, someone will run across my page and read about the severity of the censorship that goes on here.  

I realize that this site is not a public forum, and all content is at the mercy of the art gods who run it.  I just joined with the hopes of receiving critiques from other artists.  Well, those hopes were certainly dashed to pieces.  

I'm sorry, guys, but there's nothing "deviant" about being closed-minded fucks.  If Salvador Dali were still alive, and wanted to post his painting, "The Lugubrious Game," would you censort THAT simply because it portrays a man who's shit his pants in the lower righthand corner?  Everyone's seen a dead animal, and everyone's shit their pants.  Neither are so shocking that they cannot be handled by any person with average sense and intellegence.  But, nowadays, our society wants to protect everyone from everything that might make them the slightest bit uncomfortable.

I hate to tell you, but no one has ever become famous for following all the rules and being tame and ordinary.

i recently had a photograph that i took approximately eight months ago as my featured deviation . it was of a dead pigeon that i found in the alley behind my home. being a photographer, i was captivated by the tragic beauty of this animal, and felt that it was something worth capturing in a photo.

however, the staff at deviantART does not agree with me. for reasons that have only been explained to me via form letter, my photograph has been removed from their art community site. this was their explanation.





xstacey,

Your deviation, listed below, has been removed from deviantART due to a violation of our policies:

URL: [link]
Title: crushed
Submitted: 2006-03-15 11:33:45 am

Your deviation was removed because it violated one of the following policies:

1. deviantART does not tolerate deviations which are based, in majority, off of racial slurs, are anti-semetic or derogatory in nature towards a particular religion or ethnic group, offensive in nature towards an individual or group of individuals, pornographic or are deemed invaluable to deviantART as decided by the deviantART staff on a case by case basis.

2. deviantART does not tolerate deviations which are submitted in the Tutorials category which do not follow the deviantART Tutorial Submission Guidelines. If you are unfamiliar with the proper procedures for tutorial submissions then please view the deviantART Tutorial Submission Guidelines.

deviantART enforces a zero tolerance policy in regards to violations of our submission policy and therefore will take the actions that we deem necessary on a case by case basis. There is a possibility that you will be banned from interactivity on deviantART therefore it is suggested that you visit your user page to see if this is in fact the case.

If you feel that you are receiving this in error, or have questions regarding it, then visit the deviantART Help Desk in order to submit an inquiry. It should be noted that replies to this note will go unanswered and your only course of action is the deviantART Help Desk!

--
deviantART Staff







so, contact the Help Desk i did. i requested that they explain more fully (not in a form letter) why my photograph was removed. i have yet to hear from them.

i am guessing that someone who was a member of PETA or some other animal rights group saw this, and got offended. and if that is the case, then all i can say is this; i didn't harm that animal. it was already dead. i merely captured it's demise in an artistic and tasteful manner. i chose not to bring the actual eyes of the animal in focus, because they were disturbing looking. instead, i brought the blood into focus. i used discretion. i did not derive any pleasure, sexual or otherwise, from seeing this dead animal. i am not a fetishist. i am a PHOTOGRAPHER. i love animals. i have three cats, all former strays, and two lizards, one of which i rescued from the pet store where i worked after he was badly burned due to the neglegence of an employee on the shift before my own. i grew up on a small family farm, caring for and doctoring cattle. for christ's sake, i feed the pigeons on my porch every day. seeing this animal made me sad too--that's why i wanted to share it.

now, as far as deviantART's decision to remove it. if this decision was based on one person being offended and reporting my photo, then i have sincerely lost any respect for them as an art community. i seriously thought that fellow artists would do as much as they could to stand up for an artist's right to present ideas as they see fit. i thought that the point of art was to make people feel emotion. if every piece of art that a few people found offensive got stuffed into a closet...we would have a very big closet on our hands. and, i can't help but feel that if this piece was not a photo, but an illustration, it would not have been so quickly removed. it seems that many "traditional" artists are very apt to brush photographers off as "not real artists." i will agree that any idiot can press a button on an electronic box, but don't you dare say i'm not an artist. i have invested just as much time, money, emotion and intellect to my photography as people on that site who paint or draw have to their craft.

so, i will await deviantART's reasoning. if they stick by their decision to not allow me to post my photo, then they have proved that they are no better than the narrow-minded conservatives that threaten the sanctity of art. that photograph was my featured, most-viewed piece, and was added to people's favorites more than any other work i have. if my photo remains removed and i am not banned from the community, i will leave anyway, because i want no part of their arbitrary censorship.

to deviantART -- how dare you say my work is invaluable.

just writing to say that i know i haven't been too productive with my photography lately.  i'm going to try harder.  really.

i've got several photos i need to resize and upload.  so if anyone cares, check back every now and then to see some new stuff.

also, i finally got a new computer...an iMac G5.  the display quality is great.  so much better and larger than my laptop.  also, having a computer that doesn't shut down in the middle of photoshop or illustrator is a definite plus.  i can actually perform simple tasks with no frustration.  i love it.

~s

since i started posting my work on here, i've started concentrating more on photography.  i recently pre-sold my firstborn and purchased a digital canon EOS rebel.  i am in LOVE.  it's great...definitely worth the money.  

i've actually gotten a few offers to take photos for people, which is exciting.  a guy who is a magician was interested in having me take some headshots and promo pics of him.  also, the guy who sold me the camera was starting his own business and said he might be interested in having me do some ad/photo/design work for him.  neither of them have gotten back to me yet, but i'm still hoping.


right now i'm working on getting together a portfolio.  it's hard to decide what should go in and what shouldn't, but it's getting there.  also, a friend of mine is re-doing his website for his art (www.albinoraven.com if you're interested) and he told me he wanted to put some of my work up there.  he also said he wants me to take some pictures for him.  and i know when it's him, it's never going to be anything boring or ordinary.

i guess that's about it.

so i've been on here for like two days.  i've gotten some good feedback and even one favorite already, which is really cool.  

i'm sitting here being bored.  i may work in some stuff in photoshop, see what comes out.

i guess maybe i will tell this place about me a little.  i'm a college student, majoring in advertising and minoring in graphic design.  i may put some of the ads i've done up here, even though there really isn't a category for that sort of thing (i think).  i'm a junior.  i've been going to summer school, mostly learning french.  je parle mal francais, haha.  i live in a loft apartment without air conditioning.  the summer has been hell but i can feel the impending fall in the air.  it's my favorite time of year.

as far as my art goes...i dunno.  i like to do photo manips (only on my own photos, of course.)  i mostly like to take very close-up pictures of people and things...i'm fascinated with textures.  recently i've been getting into drawing more.  my new favorite thing is black india ink.  don't get me wrong, i love my prismacolor markers, but there is just something about black and white that i dearly love.  one of my other new interests is graffiti.  i haven't personally made any, but i like to hunt it out and photograph it.  stencil graffiti is especially interesting to me.

musically, i like different stuff.  indie bands like the pixies, modest mouse (even though they have a video on MTV now), wilco, death cab for cutie and bee and flower.  i also like norah jones very much...one of the last truly talented females left.  i am becoming increasingly interested in folk and old time music....my grandpa is an old time musician.  i love stuff like stan getz (the girl from impanema, curcavado, etc...the bossa nova stuff).  i also like some techno-ish stuff like moby, the chemical bros and the crystal method.

favorite artists....well.  salvador dali is my very favorite.  i know a vast amount about him, and hope to visit his musem in paris soon.  van gogh, because my boyfriend says i am very much like him (even though i disagree).  i do love his work, though.  frida kahlo, because she was such a strong woman when it was not right to be one, and because her paintings are raw feeling.  ansel adams, because he IS ansel adams.  there are many more, too many to name.

also, i love animals.  i currently have with me in my apartment one anole (a lizard), name - leezard, and three rats, names - hunter, lucy and dr. gonzo.  i had two bettas, ether and coconut, but they both have expired.  with  my parents, i have two cats, pickle and bree, and one dog, an australian blue heeler, zoe.  oh, and cows.  i have lots of cows.

as one last note, feel free to msg me if you want (unless you want to harass me about my not liking manga or anime comment, if you are insanely obessed with manga or anime, or if you use hideously bad grammar and/or chat abbreviations.)