Aaron Carter’s response to an artist who called him out for stealing his work is all kinds of problematic
Former tween pop star Aaron Carter’s latest controversy is with a German freelance artist (Instagram/Twitter)
Erstwhile 90s pop singer Aaron Carter has made an enemy of the online art community after he unapologetically used an artist’s work without permission to sell his new line of hoodies.
Carter is the younger brother of Backstreet Boys‘ Nick Carter. He began performing at age 7 but became a household name in the early 2000s with the singles ‘I Want Candy’, ‘Aaron’s Party’ and ‘Bounce’.
Last year Nick announced he’d filed a restraining order against his brother “in light of Aaron’s increasingly alarming behaviour and his recent confession that he harbours thoughts and intentions of killing my pregnant wife and unborn child.” Shortly afterwards Aaron revealed a huge facial tattoo.
The bisexual singer is now directing his energy towards his new range of $100 hoodies, and recently used an image of two lions facing each other for his promotional campaign.
The only problem was that he didn’t ask permission from Jonas Jödicke, the artist who created the image, and he didn’t take kindly to this being pointed out.
“The lion piece is called ‘Brotherhood,’ I painted it a few years ago in a time of personal confusion and hurt. It’s still is one of my favourite paintings I ever created,” Jödicke told Forbes.
‘Brotherhood’ has special meaning to Jödicke as it was the peice that started his freelance career. So when one of his followers told him Aaron Carter was using it to sell merchandise, he politely tweeted to him.
“Hey @aaroncarter… You are using my artwork to promote your merchandise. I have not given you permission to do so,” Jödicke wrote. “My art is being commercially exploited by people on a daily basis. We artists have rights, too!”
Rather than responding professionally as one artist to another, Aaron Carter replied… like this.
“You should’ve taken it as a compliment d*ck a fan of MINE sent this to me. oh here they go again, the answer is No this image has been made public and im using it to promote my clothing line, guess I’ll see you in small claims court F*CKERY”
you should’ve taken it as a compliment dick a fan of MINE sent this to me. oh here they go again, the answer is No this image has been made public and im using it to promote my clothing line https://t.co/lgrQOZMPAq guess I’ll see you in small claims court FUCKERY https://t.co/MG78rgCwZr
— Aaroncarter (@aaroncarter) January 18, 2020
Jödicke said: “I was absolutely amazed as to how he could respond in such a way and not expect people to lash out. I shared his response on my Twitter and Instagram and that is when it really blew up.”
His tweet now has over 53,000 retweets and 141,000 likes. In a flash, the former tween popstar was being accused of “making a mockery” of artists, his angry response held as emblematic of the struggle artists face in claiming ownership of their work.
“You could say the artist community on Twitter is outraged,” Jödicke said.
Carter, it seems, could not care less. When Jödicke tweeted photos showing just how much effort he put into his work, Carter still refused to back down and referred to the artist as a “clout chaser”. Nice.
here’s too clout chasers I was speaking about my family and a fan sent me the work your absolutely immature and I create my own artwork. stop trying to get clout of my name from a picture I posted. oh and fuck you and have a nice day. #assholechallenge I promote people #Fuckery https://t.co/N3CDywLepN
— Aaroncarter (@aaroncarter) January 19, 2020
Jödicke creates his digital art using a graphic tablet and Adobe Photoshop, and his work can take anywhere from five to 40 hours to complete.
Friends, don’t be like Aaron Carter: show your support for freelance artists and check out Jödicke’s website here.
