Carytown artist’s work is hanging on the White House Christmas Tree
Style Weekly features an article on Jay Sharpe, an artist with Carytown Jewlers who’s work is currently hanging from George Bush’s Christmas Tree.
Sharpe’s ornament commemorates Maggie L. Walker’s Jackson Ward row house, a National Historic Site. Sharpe used gold leafing and a lavender bow inspired by a sash Walker was photographed wearing. Because it represented a female, Sharpe says, “it had to have a soft edge and look pretty and not be a ball of confusion.”
The other ornament from Richmond that was selected for the White House’s tree was created by Paul DiPasquale, the sculptor who infamously designed the Arthur Ashe statue on Monument Ave (aka, Arthur Ashe playing keep-away with books while hitting children with his raquet).
YOU WILL NEVER READ THESE BOOKS!
But why are all the kids in a hot tub?
The strange thing is that the artists cannot reproduce the ornament, nor can they ever see or touch it again. It seems to me the White House is forcing them to relinquish their copyright. How is that fair? If it is now owned by the government, wouldn’t be public domain? I dont understand the basis of that.
I think things *produced* by the government are public domain, not necessarily owned by the government. I’m sure somewhere some federal agency owns a a Warhol, and it certainly doesn’t own the copyright to that.