My Mural Was Stolen - Transcript

Below is the full transcript of the other artist's video reply. If youre not familiar with the situation, theres a link to my instagram video explaining it. Im not linking to his response video to avoid doxxing him.

I have added a couple of key segments in my instagram update video, which highlight in his own words, that he stole the art. His full video is 10 minutes long, so obviously I couldnt add all of it in my post. I wanted to avoid him saying that the clips were taken out of context, so now you can read everything that was said.

Especially his description of the creative process, using other peoples art from Pinterest, makes it clear this isnt a case of being inspired by other peoples art, its taking existing art and then using it.

One more thing to add: Ive talked to the owner of the store that the mural was painted on. She is great and had nothing to do with this. Her side of the story was very different to his. Long story short, she did not give him permission to paint that wall. He was paid to paint the name of a restaurant on a different wall and she was very surprised to find the painted mural. This caused problems for her, because she is not the building owner, who would need to approve something like this first. That is why it was decided to have it painted over, not because she didnt like the image. Soon after she also discovered that the image was stolen as well, so now she was worried about possible copyright legal issues. I did call to let her know she had nothing to worry about and that I understood her situation.

This is important because the artist states that he thought he had permission to paint whatever he wanted .

My original post on the issue:

My update video after his response:

Full transcript of his response video:

(0:02). All right, let's address this drama, shall we? (0:11) Gwen, I know she texted me this morning, she's like, dude, somehow drama always finds you, (0:16) and I'm like, dude, I know, it's crazy. So I just want to talk about this mural situation (0:22) and be, I didn't want to address it yesterday because I'm a human, you know, I got, (0:27) I was pretty upset, pretty, not really upset.

I didn't want to give this person like two bad (0:33) days in one week. So, but this is how this whole situation happened. So the business owner, (0:43) she reached out to me about doing a mural.

She wanted a mural for a restaurant and potentially (0:47) do some other murals in town and wanted to meet up. So we met up, set up a consultation, (0:55) and I went up, went and talked numbers with her about how much a mural would cost (0:59) as far as doing her restaurant. And we came to an agreement and a deal.

And I thought, (1:07) you know, and during this time, it was super cool. She's a super cool lady. (1:11) I can literally talk your head off about absolutely nothing.

Every time me and my (1:16) wife have talked to her, it ends up being like way longer than we expected. So it was a really (1:20) cool visit. She's a really cool lady.

It's weird how I feel about this whole situation as it's (1:29) panning out because I was, she pitched the idea to me about doing the mural on the side of her (1:35) building. And she told me that it was, you know, I have artistic freedom. And she told me that, (1:43) you know, it's an open canvas and, you know, I just want you to express yourself as an artist.

(1:49) Okay. And this is only the first part. We'll address the plagiarism part too.

Okay. (1:55) So in my head, I thought, well, artistic freedom, that's cool. And it just so happened, (2:00) she put a deposit down for the mural.

And I went on my way and it just so happened that I try to (2:07) like knock these things out. Like I do them with a projector. So I do them at nighttime.

So I try (2:11) to rush and get it, not rush and get it done. But when I get something on my plate, when somebody (2:16) drops a deposit for something, I try to get it done as soon as possible. And then this time of (2:21) year, you know, we're fighting the weather and stuff like that.

So it had been a couple weeks (2:27) before. How you doing? How can I help you? We have an appointment at 1030. Oh my goodness.

(2:33) What's your name? Michaela. I texted you and asked you to come back at 1030. Can you guys (2:37) come back at 1030? I'm just doing a live thing.

I have to address some weird drama. You're welcome (2:42) to just sit down and chill if you want, but I just. All right.

Appreciate it. You need a bottle (2:49) of water or anything? All right. Appreciate you.

Sorry. It's going to be one of those days. (2:55) So where was I? Oh yeah.

Fighting the weather with Ditto murals. So we came to, uh, I, you know, (3:02) I, uh, I agreed to do the, uh, to do the restaurant mural. And then her budget was pretty much just (3:09) going to cover the restaurant mural.

And, you know, since she said artistic freedom and open (3:14) canvas, I offered to do the mural work for free. I was just going to tack it on and be like, you (3:20) know, if you're letting me do whatever I want, I'll do, I can just, I'll hook it up. You know, (3:24) I want to be able to express myself and get into doing murals more.

Um, so it's, it's a nice release (3:30) for me from sometimes being stuck in here, like 12 hours a day. And, um, it's a nice release for (3:36) me to get out of here. That's why I have a whole nother art studio.

I go to and just kind of paint (3:40) and, um, you know, just decompress from, from here. It's hard. Like, you know, as an artist, (3:46) as a tattoo artist, I'm constantly like doing what people want.

Now I do get a lot of freedom. (3:52) Um, but you know, with the tattoo, I feel like it's a little different. It's not like a mural (3:56) or a painting that can get covered up.

It's a lifetime. Um, you know, it's a lifetime, uh, (4:02) choice that you're making. So it's a little different.

I don't ever feel any certain way (4:07) when people make me do what they want. Um, so yeah, she hired me to do the mural. I said, yes.

(4:14) I said, I would do the creative freedom mural, you know, pretty much for free. I would just, (4:19) if she let me do whatever I want. So I thought we came to a cool agreement, (4:22) thought we were on the same page.

I totally didn't ask permission before I painted it. (4:27) I didn't ask her. I didn't tell her.

I was actually wanting it to be a surprise. (4:32) Um, so I, I mean, I, I text, Hey, you know, at like 11 at night when I was like getting ready (4:38) to do it, like, Hey, and I was going to give a heads up that I was up there and just in case, (4:42) like, you know, get stopped by the law or something like that. I had permission to be (4:46) here, you know? Um, but I, instead I thought, you know, I'll just make it a surprise and it'll be (4:52) cool.

You know, like art, you know, and, uh, that reference that I use the girl, that's another (4:58) thing we, we, we, I'm going to address right now. I had no idea that it was like some famous artist. (5:03) He's really good.

I wish I could, um, remember his name off the top of my head. I think it's (5:08) like do me or something. Um, I, if you scroll back through a couple of the comments on the (5:13) previous posts, I know the lady that hired me to do the mural, um, the restaurant mural, (5:19) I wasn't hired to do the, the girl mural.

Um, I know that she's posted the artist link and I left (5:26) it up out of respect for him. I demand no harm. And I, by stealing it and I meant no harm to anyone, (5:32) but absolutely by doing it, I wanted it to be a surprise and just something that was cool for the (5:38) city, you know, some, some cool big art to look at.

I didn't really focus on, on what it was. (5:44) I was totally, I should have totally should have done my research before I painted something that (5:50) big. Um, and it is not even nearly as good as the original artist and it never is.

I think (5:57) myself as an artist, I'm just a compilation of failure. Like I am, I, I try to be like (6:05) Nico Hurtado or Kat Von D or all these, you know, high class, excellent portrait artists. (6:12) And I fall short of that.

I fall short of being as great as them at what they do on a daily basis, (6:19) but where I fall short is where I landed and that's who I am as artists. Um, so all respects (6:25) to the artists that painted it, I demand no harm by taking it. I just literally found it on Pinterest.

(6:30) I'm on Pinterest, scroll through there all the time. I know it's like hated on, but I snag (6:37) reference photos from there all the time. I run them through chat GPT to change them.

(6:41) And then I use them and I've just used the tools that are at hand that, that I'm, (6:48) that I'm able to use. So, I mean, I never meant for anything. I know what I don't understand (6:55) what's frustrating with me about this is just like the, the nastiness, like waking up to nasty (7:00) text messages.

Um, and, and, you know, somewhat having my faith, like thrown in my face and saying (7:08) that I'm not a godly man. And I'm not, uh, um, I, I know I fall short of the image of God. I don't (7:14) have to be reminded of that.

Nobody has to remind me of that. I can, I know that every single day (7:19) on a daily basis. Um, and again, just like Jesus is one of my heroes and I fall where I'm at (7:27) because I fall short of being like Jesus, but anyways, I never meant to cause any harm.

(7:34) You know, I, I, the only thing that really kind of bothers me is, you know, I thought this person (7:38) was a friend. I, uh, I had nothing, I knew nothing about the post. And that night I text her my (7:44) personal cell phone number.

I was like, Hey, this is my personal number. And I'm like, please don't (7:47) pass it out for work. You know, I try to separate my life from work and, and, uh, and, and, and play, (7:55) I guess.

And I just wanted her to know that I, I, I thought that she was a personal friend of (8:00) mine. So, you know, since then, and it's, uh, it's okay. I take everything with a grain of salt, (8:06) you know, like, but having my faith, like questioned and, you know, telling me personally, (8:11) I don't, I don't think anything was posted online, but telling me personally that I'm trying to, (8:15) you know, I just did the 41 paintings to make a profit off Jesus and all this stuff.

And (8:19) I've never put men put in the position to like send a picture of the check and prove (8:24) that that's what I really did, that I worked for charity and the canvases are expensive. (8:29) They, you know, luckily I, I barely made enough to pay for all the canvases and materials, (8:34) not to mention the rent at my art studio for the month. Um, but yeah, I mean, no, (8:41) no harm was meant to be done.

You know, I didn't, I didn't mean to plagiarize another artist. I mean, (8:46) you find all kinds of stuff on Pinterest and it's hard to tell whether it's already AI generated or (8:50) not. So, I mean, I, I just wanted to do a cool mural for the city.

I mean, and that's pretty (8:56) much it. I, that's all I wanted to do. I just wanted to make a cool mural and I wanted to (9:01) surprise the owners that I thought they would love it and that would be cool.

And, you know, (9:05) I was going to change it. I did have, I envisioned her with the sinking clouds, um, (9:12) with the little image of Harris, um, above it. So it would have been changed in it.

And it wasn't (9:18) like copied exactly like all this, I even like, uh, posted a story of me actually in the process (9:25) of doing it, spray painting the hearts. But anyways, yeah, I just wanted to address that. (9:30) Um, I have no like ill will or like, I don't think anything bad about anybody.

I know like (9:35) I'm used to like this kind of people, when you get a lot of attention from a post, people like (9:42) to attach themselves to it and, and, and kind of get some of that attention too. And that's totally (9:47) okay. And I, I don't have, like I said, I don't have any ill feelings.

I think the restaurant that (9:51) I was supposed to do for the mural is probably one of the best restaurants in this town that I've (9:55) eaten at. That's like super fast, super friendly. The food is like on point, authentic Latino, (10:02) Mexican food is on fire.

And, uh, the store happy orders is actually a really freaking dope store. (10:09) Like I can barely let my wife go in there without staying in there for a couple of hours. Like (10:14) every time we go in there, there is just billions to look at.

If you ever have the time, go in there (10:20) and check it out. It's unfortunate that the mural is not going to stay, you know, but that also is (10:25) just out of respect, you know, but I did not ask permission to do the mural. I didn't ask the (10:33) lady that hired me to do the mural, if I could do it.

Um, I didn't ask anybody. And I just don't (10:40) think there was any authority at all for me to be told I had artistic freedom with the wall in (10:46) the first place. So I hope you guys have a great week.

I hope it's a productive for you. And, (10:51) you know, I hope that, uh, hope it's all gravy for you. All right.

I'll see you later.