Justyna Dorsz

Artist Life

I hired a law firm

I never thought I would need a lawyer.

I wrote previously about my most popular design. Unfortunately, a lot of people steal it and sell it in their stores. Reporting all those places where it’s for sale takes a lot of time, and it never brings me any compensation.

This time is going to be different.

"Not Today" - design by Justyna Dorsz
“Not Today”

A few weeks ago, I noticed that “Not Today” is, yet again, sold by a lot of sellers. I counted 19 of them! I hired a law firm to represent me. This week all those sellers got requests to remove listings with my design and pay me a small compensation. They have time until December 31st.

In January, we will sue those that will not have complied. I will write more about this as the situation develops. It will be helpful to other artists who want to protect their intellectual property.

Here’s the next part.

Advice for aspiring artists

It’s an advice for aspiring actors, not for artists, but it applies anyway.

Bryan Cranston is an actor, he played the main character in Breaking Bad. What he says is that you should do your job, as you can, and everything else is out of your control, so you should not even think about it.

His advice reminds me of what Elizabeth Gilbert said, that you should stubbornly continue making your art, even if people ignore or hate what you create.

When you are just starting out, it’s difficult to get noticed. For months no one may even know you exist, and no one buys your designs. Wait it out. Create more designs until, one day, one of them sells. It might be the one you expect the least.

What if no one likes my art?

Just do your job.
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

I subscribe to the Farnam Street newsletter and recently there was a quote that I am going to share here:

Recognizing that people’s reactions don’t belong to you is the only sane way to create. If people enjoy what you’ve created, terrific. If people ignore what you’ve created, too bad. If people misunderstand what you’ve created, don’t sweat it. And what if people absolutely hate what you’ve created? What if people attack you with savage vitriol, and insult your intelligence, and malign your motives, and drag your good name through the mud? Just smile sweetly and suggest – as politely as you possibly can – that they go make their own fucking art. Then stubbornly continue making yours.

—Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of the book “Eat, Pray, Love” which I haven’t yet read because the word “Pray” kind of scares me off. However, I like the calls to “Eat” and to “Love” so I might give the book a try anyway.

Elizabeth also did a TED talk, which is one of my favorite TED talks, and I have watched it a couple of times.

“Your Elusive Creative Genius” by Elizabeth Gilbert (TED)

In the talk, she says that after the success of “Eat, Pray, Love” people approached her and said: “Aren’t you afraid you’re never going to be able to top that?”

And what stuck with me is when she said:

I’m pretty young, I’m only about 40 years old. I still have maybe another four decades of work left in me. (…) It’s exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me.

That’s scary. What if my greatest success is behind me? And I haven’t even achieved anything that amazing. I have just a few moderate successes: my “Not Today” design, our “Hidden Paws” game. What if nothing I make will top that?

Elizabeth has an answer. It’s in the quote cited at the beginning, “stubbornly continue making yours [art]”. And in the TED talk when she says, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be daunted. Just do your job.”

I like this attitude. Create things — that’s your job. Everything else is out of your hands.