Doodlesplatter’s First Annual Shammy Awards
Some of you may be following a little niche of an event called the 2010 Olympics. Shaun White on the halfpipe was awesome, and personally, we’re all captivated by curling. But something else caught our eyes, namely, the US snowboard team’s Olympic uniforms by Burton. You look at the gear they’ve got on and think, “Wow, those ornery Americans are wearing denim on the slopes.” But on closer inspection, it’s not the real thing. It is merely a Gore-tex simulation of the classic look of jeans. That got us thinking.
There’s been a lot of dodgers in the doodlesphere lately. Since we’ve built a 500+ strong artkive of Jon Burgerman’s work, we figure we’re about as trained as it gets in spotting a designer impostor. It’s not necessary to beat you (already did) and we don’t want to join you, so the only reasonable solution is to publicly shame you for your [complete lack of] efforts.
With that, the Shammies were born. It’s just like the Grammys, except with 100% more Shame. Yes, that’s right: In our competition, all our Winners are Losers (not just Kanye West this time)! Let us take our hats off and briefly celebrate spurious imitations. CONGRATULATIONS: YOU ARE A SHAM! [The Shammies are brought to you by Doodlesplatter, The Neon Hive, The letter L and the number 0. We draw strength & inspiration from the chutzpah of Regretsy. Note: The images in this post have been updated for clarification and comparison. For each award, the top graphic is the Sham Artist. The bottom graphic is by Jon Burgerman.]
The Bronze Shammy
We begin with the recipient of the Bronze Shammy: an obsessive copycat whose talent is only surpassed by his cleverness. By using the synonymous pseudonym of “scribbler,” we’d never link you to our dear doodler! You’re even selling your sham art. You might have got the Silver for that, but we saw on your About page that you’re “into anything you can learn something from.” If only there was a really easy way to learn more about PLAGIARISM?
The Silver Shammy
Our Silver Medalist is a complicated chap. We don’t hate your art, but then again, this makes a lot of sense, because we love the art of Jon Burgerman, who you have straight up copied. With your Facebook fan page and your Beats for Bowel Cancer poster, you provide us with so many softballs with which we could mock you, but it’s just too easy. The thing that gets us about you, Mr. L, is that you don’t seem like an idiot. We even read our way through some of your dissertation, which contains a chapter entitled “Art and Skateboarding as a Method for Expression of Individualism.” Hmmm. Individualism. If only there was a really easy way to brush up on the meaning of Individualism… Study up because we’re short-listing you for Gold in 2011.
The Gold Shammy
What is there to say about the winner of the Gold Shammy? Nothing that hasn’t already been said. Your “work” ignited a burst of angst on Twitter and spotlighted for many of us the growing problem of Sham Art in our community. You have the dubious distinction of being THE most named imitator of Jon Burgerman’s art during informal surveys and focus groups. We sense that there may be a language barrier at work here, so we’ve prepared a special bilingual resource just for you.
See you in 2011, Shammies, and in the meantime, I think it was Albert Einstein who said, “Inspiration is vital to all humanity, but copycats are complete douchenozzles.”
Custom 
so these people are publishing/selling/making these things under Jon Burgerman’s name? shame.
Fantastic article and well-deserved Shammy recipients. Don’t people know that all you have to do is call something an “homage” and you’re off the hook?! Just call it what it is! If I had a dollar for every Peter Beard or Starn Twins ripoff…
Actually, Jon’s name is completely missing from these people’s “portfolios.” They might have gotten a pass if they’d at least have written “inspired/influenced/stolen by/from or tribute/homage to Jon Burgerman” (though they’d still be guilty of being HACKS). The problem is that 2/3 of them are taking commissions for sham art.
This is sickening, how can you call yourself an artist stealing someones elses style. It’s one thing if its inspired by something but these even make Sam Flores angry.
Oh snap! Kylo76 is of course referring to the 2009 Sam Flores debacle illustrated here: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=3818
I wonder if YTWWN would post this story? Let me try to submit…
Great article.
as a fan I got a lot inspired as well by they mighty Burgerman.
But then more on a hobby level. No intension of becoming the great Van Gogh or so. Jon’s work got me drawing again. And nobody succeeded in doing so since I got from artschool and focussed on my music.
Anyway, back to the art-icle:
talking about shammy:
I hate it when they do stuff like this as well at eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KEV-MUNDAY-CANVAS-Banksy-Kid-Acne-Burgerman-GRAFFITI-YO_W0QQitemZ140384821847QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_art_Paintings_GL?hash=item20af966257&ssPageName=RSS:B:SHOP:GB:101
or
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KEV-MUNDAY-CANVAS-Jon-Burgerman-Osgemeos-Street-ART-POW_W0QQitemZ140384820837QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_art_Paintings_GL?hash=item20af965e65&ssPageName=RSS:B:SHOP:GB:101
or
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KEV-MUNDAY-CANVAS-Jon-Burgerman-Neate-POW-GRAFFITI-Kaws_W0QQitemZ140384815077QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_art_Paintings_GL?hash=item20af9647e5&ssPageName=RSS:B:SHOP:GB:101
etc.
The header makes you happy as a JB fan, but its not at all about this.
so I there would be another Shammy, I would make it a plastic shammy (coz plastic is cheap, and in a wake stands for fake) for all these eBay-ers…
I don’t quite get this why people would be mad that somebody’s art is similar to Burgerman’s, it’s not like the concept of doodling was his invention, or that drawing a squiggly line and seeing what you could make of it, while colouring each sector differently is something he exclusively does. Heck, patterns made out of characters was around long before JB as well.
Allow me to show you guys a mural a friend of mine designed for the principal’s office at Gloucester College:
http://Blade51.deviantart.com/art/My-wall-mural-design-95825528
He designed it on paper, OHP’d it onto the wall and a team of us traced the projection and then painted it. I was really glad to be a part of it even if I was just painting some colours into somebody else’s design.
He did credit Jon Burgerman for inspiring the style, so I wouldn’t exactly call it a ripoff.
Remember that this is an entire industry based around inspiration and re-interpretation.
I agree with Beddoes. I’m also not at all familiar with Burgerman (I came here through YTWWN) but this ‘awards’ thing gives him a bad name, I think. ‘Douche’ isn’t a term I’ve used before but it’s coming to mind here, seeing all this gobbledygook…
While it’s possible that the artists pictured above are ripping off Burgerman, I look at them and the similarities I see between the examples are things that definitely aren’t unique to Burgerman. They may be hallmarks of his work, features he’s known for, but only a highly ignorant person would claim them to be innovations of his. I don’t think even Burgerman himself would make that claim.
The gold winner for one, the ‘ripper’ is putting all these shapes together to make a person of some kind, a pretty plain idea, and in Burgerman’s it seems to be just a bunch of faces and squiggles. The ‘copying’ you’re pointing out then, I’m guessing, is the abstract nature and overlapping lines? I hate to burst your bubble here, but that ’style’ is not original to Burgerman. That’s one of things I was getting at above. You can go back over a century and find work much like this - same style of legs, faces, same symbolism, same technique, absolutely everything.
Not to insult Burgerman’s work in any way, but to me it just looks like someone has superficially adopted certain Picasso methods and used them to make lo-brow art/ideas. There are many others working in this style, both long ago and today, but Picasso is of course the most familiar example.