Expressive figure painting workshop

In June I had another opportunity to participate in a weekend workshop with Barbara Fugate. It was intense two days filled with instruction and inspiration. We studied approach of the Bay Area Figure Painters, except we painted from the live model. We did four paintings in the two days. All 24 x 36 inch or larger. Needless to say there was no fussing allowed. I'm looking forward to this weekend's Fugate workshop, three days of "Figure in the Landscape" on Guemes Island. I've got my wide brimmed hat and the weather is looking fine!

Spring in the West Seattle Junction

My studio is located in West Seattle, specifically in “The Junction”. It really is the Heart of West Seattle, I love being part of the neighborhood. There's great shopping and lots of good places to eat, it's very lively these day. I can walk out my door, cross the street and find great desserts at “Coffee to a Tea with Sugar”, yummy sandwiches at Capers and Husky Deli, hmmm where should I get lunch today? Easystreet Records has great coffee (and breakfast — hi Lydia), and funky-graphic-overload decor, amazingly the CD I want is always on sale, YES! There's too many great small businesses to list, you get the idea.

Recently I had the opportunity to create a Spring direct mail promotion for the Junction Association. It was their first big mailing, it promoted the start of the popular West Seattle Farmers Market and Spring sales and events coordinated by merchants. The back of the postcard had 20 coupons from Junction establishments. They let me go loose with a fun and colorful illustration, you certainly couldn’t miss it in the stack of mail. I think it brought the Junction’s visibility up a notch — with style!

Sweet Pea dismissed

I'm late in posting this, I was just plain tired of talking about it. April 3rd we heard that the case was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff. In fact, the few settlement fees that were paid to the plaintiff's attorney early on have been returned to those defendants. Hard to believe, but apparently true as reported in the Miami Herald by Jim Wyss. Also it appears the attorney Alexander E Barthet no longer has Sweet Pea Ltd. as a client. I feel so sad for him. For the many Sweet Pea defendants that settled recently at no cost, though details can't be revealed, we can definitely say that it was done in our favor and that it particularly addresses our key creative and legal issues. The whole sorted story is at sourpeas.org. For those of us that settled the case is dismissed "with predjudice" meaning they can can't sue us again for the same claims. Now on to happier pursuits...

Oh yes, this Sour Pea believes in IP rights

Today I had an email from a stranger, they said "You are considering this tradition [of intellectual property rights] to be meaningless and worthless." He questioned the purpose of the sourpeas.org site. Of course I had to respond to this anonymous emailer. Here's what I wrote...
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I definitely believe organizations have the right to defend their trademark. I'm quoted in the Miami Herald saying so.

I'm a professional graphic designer and illustrator, with 20 years experience. I make my living based on my own copyrights. In fact I had registered my copyright for my version of Sweet Pea. I'm a member of the Graphic Artists Guild which is a advocate of artist's rights and copyrights.

I never had heard of Sweet Pea Ltd. although I was aware many companies were using "Sweet Pea" as a graphic on clothing. I assumed it was a term of endearment in the public domain. When you compare the defendants alleged infringing marks they in no way resemble their logo, but this is about the words "Sweet Pea". Although I don't have time to respond fully to you about the specific merits, all the IP attorneys we spoke to agreed with our position. It would have been for the courts to decide. Unfortunately we don't have the resources to take it to that level.

What this was about is litigation extortion. No cease and desists were sent to the defendants, we were just faced with a 2 inch thick stack of papers claiming trademark counterfeiting among other things. The suit is for 16 million dollars. When my friend/attorney called the plaintiff's attorney (Barthet) and offered to abide by an injunction Barthet said sure, plus $5000. To me that's not a reasonable way to go about protecting your trademark. It's about intimidation and extortion.

I believe if a company has a trademark they should start with the basics, like using a TM along with that trademark, and sending a cease and desist if they feel a infringement is occurring. http://www.gosweetpea.com

I believe in IP rights and the value of IP to business but I do feel the trademarking of common words may be getting out of hand, and is beginning to limit free speech and even business speech. The term for this is trademark abuse. There's a very interesting article about this issue at marketingmag.ca

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Today the long awaited Seattle Times article came out, this may be the article my anonymous emailer had read. It left out the "extortion" angle of the story, and focused on how the sourpeas organized, so the reader really doesn't get the whole picture. Unfortunately in the photo I look like a scary chick, what can I say?

Boy this thing is exhausting, I'm looking forward to a day when I don't have to think about it and can just do my work. I'm very happy and relieved a reasonable settlement is in the works.

When sweet peas go sour

Yes, I'm a very sour pea. I'm named as a defendant in a trademark infringement lawsuit. My copyrighted cutesy "Sweet Pea" graphic design is the issue. I'm not alone, I'm one of 52 defendants listed in a intellectual property lawsuit seeking $16M from each person for using the term "Sweet Pea." 44 are CafePress shopkeepers, and all are micro businesses — some haven't ever sold anything! Short story is that this is an up and coming trend, using the internet to find small targets, filing suit then asking for a settlement to make the suit go away. In my case, my attorney/friend's call to the plaintiff's attorney, Alexander E Barthet of Miami, brought about a demand of a $5,000 fee, plus and injunction from using the image in the future.

Sweet Pea Limited is the plaintiff, note they don't even us a "TM" anywhere on their site. Their products are always referred to as "Sweet Pea by Stacy Frati". Their clothes are feminine, trendy tops sold at Nordstrom. The defendants believe, "Sweet Pea" is a generic term of affection and vegetable, not worthy of protected trademark status, and that applying our designs graphically to a generic t-shirt or baby bib is not a violation of their trademark.

The defendants have worked very hard to organize themselves and went to the press this week, please read our press release at www.sourpeas.org all the sour details are there, including the "Them/us" sweet pea "comparo", see the designs and compare for yourself. The lawsuit and other references are also on the site. Look for us in the news (and wish me luck ; )

Really big drift wood at La Push Washington

That's me standing in front of the driftwood log. The weather was spectacular for the 3 days we were there, not what you expect in February, or anytime of the year actually. Including a ferry ride, La Push is about a 4-5 hour drive from Seattle. The Ocean Park Resort is the place to stay, owned and operated by the Quileute Tribe, they offer lots of cabins on a beautiful beach. Go for the deluxe modern cabins, they're wonderful. No TV, internet or cell phone access, this is a place to get away from technology and connect with nature. Olympic National Park is nearby with more spectacular beaches and the Hoh rain forest. I'm looking forward to our next ocean getaway.

Gesture figure drawing workshop

I was fortunate to participate in Barbara Fugate's gesture drawing workshop last weekend. It was a welcome diversion from a heavy workload of digital design. Barbara posted some our student drawings. (No drawing was more than 3 minutes, most only one minute.) She says gesture drawing is like playing music. I missed out on learning to play an instrument, but doing this type of drawing must be a bit like jazz improvisation, lyrical and very satisfying creatively. I look forward to another taking workshop in March.

Barbara is a figure drawing master and a wonderful teacher. See Barbara's amazing expressive figure work and learn about future workshop offerings at her "From Life" blog.