Artwork / Critics Critiqued / Gavin Shettler (Portland Art Center)

I painted this portrait in 2003, and three years later it got a second chance at public life with the Portland Art Center’s Boredom: I Learned It by Watching You. Also in 2006, another artist used this image of Gavin as an illustration for a blog post about him and failed to credit me. This is part of what inspired me to give up my copyright on my work. In 2014, I spoke at TEDxGeneva about freedom in our digital age, and in my talk I featured Gavin’s portrait as well as the story of its use. My presentation is called “In Defense of Imitation.”