Bear's Adventures Through the Wired

I never guessed that in my adulthood, I’d be relating to Calvin’s parents as much as I do in this comic.

So Delta flight 302 flew in to San Juan, picked up passengers, and threaded one arm of Irma on the way out. The pilot basically said “hold my beer” and took on a hurricane.

I am not entirely convinced that Poe Dameron was not flying this plane, to be honest.

My dude landed and took off in less than an hour and squeezed between the arm of the hurricane and the core:

No, I’m not going to link back to your page. I edited out your ugly signature too. I paid for the art. It is mine.

Don’t worry, this does not mean I take credit for drawing it. When people ask if I drew it, I say “Nope.” When people ask who did, I say, “Sorry, I don’t remember.”

Just because I bought your art does not mean our profiles have to be linked forever. It’s the same if I buy an apple from the grocer. I don’t have to keep the sticker on it or tell people where it came from. I’m not a walking advertisement for your shop.

If you want credit so badly, then I should get a cut of your future profits for my part in the advertising.

if you bought a physical, painted-on-canvas drawing, would you still go through the trouble of trying to edit out the signature there too? Because literally the only difference between that scenario and this one is that the canvas can be physically held and displayed, where the digital painting stays in a digital venue.

Please do not ever fucking commission me. My signature is an A, but I don’t care if an artist’s signature is a giant fucking watermark half as big as the piece. If you cut out their signature, you cut out their effort. Do you have to make a little URL tag that links back to my page or DA or tumblr or whatever? No. Would it be nice? Yeah. Is it a good habit to do anyway? Yeah.

But unless you’re paying me USD and we’ve made it part of the agreement that my signature will NOT be on the art- leave the fucking signature on the art. You purchased art that has the signature. Once you alter it, you’re violating our purchase agreement. The artist produced that art for your agreed upon purchase price with the understanding that what they were sending- signature fucking included- would remain on the piece.

When I show my stuff here on Tumblr, I keep whatever DA link came with the automatic sharing of the post. I include a comment about the work if I feel it needs actual context, but otherwise I just have the link to the original post on DA and to my profile on DA. That’s it. I don’t link Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, Flickr, Instagram, and whatever other god forsaken social media people can easily find me on. 

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST.

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST.

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST. 

CHANCES ARE THEY ARE GOING TO WORK VERY HARD ON YOUR PIECE  

THEY MIGHT EVEN BE ANXIOUS BECAUSE THEY MIGHT TAKE A LITTLE LONGER THAN EXPECTED 

SOMETIMES THEY LOSE STEAM HALF WAY BECAUSE LIFE THROWS OBSTACLES IN THE WAY. 

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST, THEY WILL HAVE SPENT TIME AND EFFORT ON YOUR PIECE. THEY MIGHT HAVE GONE THOUGH SOME TURMOIL IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING IT. BUT IN THE END YOU WILL HAVE WHAT YOU PAID FOR. 

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST AND YOU ARE HAPPY WITH THEIR WORK AND WHAT THEY PROVIDED, THE ARTIST WILL BE VERY HAPPY AND PROUD. THEY WORKED VERY HARD ON IT! THEY PROBABLY WON’T MIND IF YOU SHOW IT TO OTHER PEOPLE, IT WOULD HELP THE ARTIST A LOT! (BUT IT’S OKAY IF YOU DECIDE TO KEEP IT TO YOURSELF TOO….)

BUT IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST… 

AND YOU SEE THE ONE SECTION THAT TIES SAID ARTIST TO THE PRODUCT THEY WORKED SO HARD ON….. 

….AND DECIDE TO TAKE IT OFF 

YOU HURT THE ARTIST EMOTIONALLY…..

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST AND EDIT THEIR NAME OFF THE PIECE….

YOU ARE SAYING “FUCK YOU ARTIST, I COULD HONESTLY CARE LESS ABOUT HOW MUCH TIME AND EFFORT YOU PUT INTO THIS. I PAID FOR IT SO OBVIOUSLY I DESERVE TO TAKE THE CREDIT FOR SOMETHING I HAD NO HAND IN BESIDES PAYING FOR IT TO BE CREATED.”

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST, DELETE THEIR SIGNATURE, AND SHOW IT OFF, YOUR FRIENDS WILL ENJOY IT AND SHOW IT TO OTHER FRIENDS. THOSE FRIENDS MIGHT WANT TO BUY SOMETHING SIMILAR! BUT THE ARTIST ISN’T GETTING CREDIT FOR IT BECAUSE YOU ESSENTIALLY TOOK THEIR WORK AND CLAIMED THE WORK, EFFORT, AND SKILL FOR YOURSELF, ALL BECAUSE YOU PAID FOR IT. (SOUNDS CRAPPY RIGHT?)

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST

CHANCES ARE PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHO THEY ARE. CHANCES ARE THEY TOOK THE COMMISSION TO PAY SOME BILLS AND REALLY NEEDED THE MONEY.

IF YOU COMMISSION AN ARTIST AND DELETE THEIR SIGNATURE….

Not to mention he gave Ginny all of Lockharts Defence Against The Dark Arts books, and gave Fred and George his triwizard winnings in the fourth book. 

And if you think, for even a second, that Molly or Arthur Weasley would have ever taken money from him then you don’t know that family at all.

When I was younger I was very right-wing. I mean…very right-wing. I won’t go into detail, because I’m very deeply ashamed of it, but whatever you’re imagining, it’s probably at least that bad. I’ve taken out a lot of pain on others; I’ve acted in ignorance and waved hate like a flag; I’ve said and did things that hurt a lot of people.

There are artefacts of my past selves online – some of which I’ve locked down and keep around to remind me of my past sins, some of which I’ve scrubbed out, some of which are out of my grasp. If I were ever to become famous, people could find shit on me that would turn your stomach.

But that’s not me anymore. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years. I’ve become more open to seeing things through others’ eyes, and reforged my anger to turn on those who harm others rather than on those who simply want to exist. I’ve learned patience and compassion. I’ve learned how to recognise my privileges and listen to others’ perspectives. I’ve learned to stand up for others, how to hear, how to help, how to correct myself. And I learned some startling shit about myself along the way – with all due irony, some of the things I used to lash out at others for are intrinsic parts of myself.

You wouldn’t know what I am now from what I was then. You wouldn’t know what I was then from what I am now.

It distresses me deeply to think of someone dredging up my dark, awful past and treating me as though that furiously hateful person is still me. It distresses me to see others dredging up the past for anyone who has made efforts to become a better person, out of some sick obsession with proving they’re “problematic.”

The obsession with finding shit in someone’s past and then claiming that a questionable or even sordid past negates all possibility of a good present needs to become extinct. Gold-star activism and purity culture are bullshit and we need to collectively reject the fuck out of them.