2020 has been a seemingly endless stream of disasters, pronounced social unrest, and cancellations. In a matter of months, life has become almost unrecognizable, a sea of masks greeting us as soon as we deign to leave the house. Many of the events we looked forward to suddenly turned into Zoom gatherings, Instagram live stories, or WebEx meetings, and while we’re starting to adjust to this “new normal,” it’s just not the same.
With every next digital replacement leaving a sour taste, we’ve had to shift our sources of excitement to those few virtual events such as Inktober. As many artists familiar with the virtual art community will testify, Inktober, a worldwide challenge to draw something every day based on a different prompt for the month of October, has become an annual tenet of the online art scene and a period of uninterrupted creative fertility even from home. The excitement has since descended into hostile speculation regarding the integrity of Inktober’s maker, Jake Parker, following a plagiarism claim on his newest book, Inktober All Year Long. According to well (but lesser) known author Alphonso Dunn, who explained in an hour-long video the basis of his claim, Parker copied the structure of his teachings from his own book, Pen and Ink Drawing: A Simple Guide. As such, Inktober participants feel hesitant to contribute to Parker’s brand.
This is not the first time Parker faces public backlash for apparent legal issues. The increasing popularity for Inktober following its inception in 2009 led Parker to trademark the brand, strictly instructing Inktober participants the limited ways they could reference the challenge in the art. Failure to comply resulted in consequent apprehension from Parker’s legal team, as Kristen Kiomall-Evans faced via Amazon when she tried to sell her Inktober pieces. Many participants expressed dissent at the sudden move to monetize the challenge, given the 10-year belated decision and the notion that Parker’s hashtag had only garnered so much popularity off works of thousands of others. The current issue seems to piggyback off the aforementioned one, with countless artists calling the alleged plagiarism “the last straw” in their waning patience against Parker. Cognizant of the turmoil, DeviantArt, a popular art/social networking platform, announced its withdrawal from hosting the first ever Inktober awards, stating, “We strive to be artist first, and our campaigns will always aim to reflect a mission of support and inclusivity.” It’s hard not to speculate that this wording arises from the difference in ethnicities of Dunn, who is Black, and Parker, who is White.
All considered, we can make Jake Parker out to be an artist with great disregard for the artists he claims to support through monetizing a brand that has gained prominence on the backs of other artists, and who rips off less popular Black artists’ work to sell as his own. It’s easy to want to cancel a man who has single-handedly demonstrated contempt for his virtual colleagues’ work, isn’t it? But what have we failed to consider? Firstly, it’s natural that any artist will want to own the rights for an idea that they conceive, especially if it can be monetized in a way that is not harmful to those who have rightfully utilized it. Dislike for such a decision should be considered separately from the alleged plagiarism. There is no doubt that Dunn should be celebrated for his Blackness, and it’s a wonderful thing that so many artists have reached out to support Dunn by buying his book. However, this shouldn’t be synonymous with completely writing off Parker without all the facts. Personally, I didn’t like Parker’s statement addressing the plagiarism. It came across as insincere and pointed to the obvious fact that no one “owns” the fundamentals of any craft. Moreover, it wrongly criticized Dunn for not having reached out privately (if Dunn really was plagiarized, he increases his chances at a fair retribution significantly when the opposition—Parker—is of much greater influence or value). But he did say one thing that I would like to point out in agreement: We do not have all the facts yet.
It’s a stressful idea to have the one non-cancellable event of the year lose so much appeal so close to the event itself, but that does not mean that our opinions should descend into vapid criticism of an artist whose motives remain unknown to us. It’s important to remember that regardless of wherever our own sympathies lie, there is no need to ruthlessly condemn one side without all the facts. In the meantime, many participants are searching for alternatives, and similar challenges have arisen, including Artober, Conceptober, and plenty more. To everyone out there deciding to participate in Inktober or any other sort of drawing challenge for the month of October, Happy Drawing!
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