OTAKON ARTIST ALLEY 2012 INJUSTICE
At around 10-11PM on Friday July 28th, Martin Matthews (self-proclaimed co-head of the Artist Alley at Otakon) made his rounds throughout the alley counting the number of pieces of fanart vs originals in compliance with the 50-50 rule*. When he approached Finni, he counted her displays (she had EXACTLY 12 pieces of fanart and originals each) and proceeded to call her out on a “violation”. He claimed that her display was “too close to the 50-50 limit” and that she needed to take some of her fanart down. Aside from the fact that Finni had already followed the rules, he scolded her for a reason that was irrelevant to the aforementioned citation. Finni then proceeded to follow Mr. Matthews to dispute his ruling (in front of Nainsoo and Enduro). Calmly but assertively, she argued that his ruling was illegitimate and unfair. After shutting down her attempts, she walked away. At that moment, enduro witnessed Mr. Matthews saying that due to her “bitching” and rude behavior, she was automatically going to be rejected from subsequent Artist Alley table lotteries in the future.
In addition to this irresponsible and unconscionable breach of contract, the so-called staff members called Finni as well as her tablemate Zimmay, who was completely unaffiliated with this injustice to the front desk due to “verbal assault”. As Finni approached the front desk, she was told to step aside so they could talk to her tablemate alone. Mr. Matthews continued to aggressively scold Zimmay for her tablemate’s verbal assault and demanded an apology. Zimmay apologized excessively while Mr. Matthews repeatedly interrupted her boldly expressing the fact that she was very close to being banned. Additionally, she was told that she was very close to being blacklisted revealing the fact that there exists a blacklist in the first place. So far, there has not been any progress on the case, and our goal is to spread the word of this injustice in order to let people know of the abuse of power among the staff members who run the Artist Alley.
I was there when this whole fiasco happened, and it was pretty ridiculous. It is one thing to establish rules to regulate the fanart market, but to punish someone who was abiding by the rules to a T? Sort of raises your, eyebrows, doesn’t it? To add salt to the injury, this so-called “staff” quite literally bullied an associate (Zimmay, who wasn’t responsible for any of the “trouble” at hand), while Finni was told not to speak simply because she was assertive (but diplomatic) enough to want to explain and defend her behalf. Both artists affected were emotionally distraught from the unfounded and unjust commotion, and it was really upsetting to witness this kind of social injustice because we artists don’t have a representing voice.
It’s been a while since the Ramy incident, which is primarily the reason behind these regulations in the first place — and guess where he is? Freely indulging in that fanart market in the dealer’s room while the rest of the modestly earning artists suffer from the consequences.
We would appreciate it if you took the time to read and spread the word, to help us stand up for our artist community against these tyrants.
(via demonicmuffin)
