Am I crazy or is this insane. This guy rips off my work, gets exhibited at strassen_stroossen Culture Center, wins a prize of €1,500, in an event supported by the government of Luxembourg and Ministry of Culture, and had it presented to Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Princess Stéphanie @courgrandducale. When confronted by others about copyright infringement, he sends me an email statement, tells me that as a figurative painter it’s obvious that he needs reference materials. That he was inspired by someone else who appropriated my photos first (!!), and even though he was inspired by some of my artistic choices, he had "created an image in an artisanal way”, with different colors, flipped the photo, and added earrings and a sword. ??? He goes on to include a list of artists that used famous IPs and paintings in their art as example, mansplaining what copyright infringement and transformative use mean. As if I haven’t been dealing with these things these past 2 decades. I’m always happy to let students reference my work for studies or practice, so long as it’s not for official portfolios, commercial gain, and always credited. If my artistic choices and creations have no value, then people ripping off my work should have no business referencing them, right? If others can identify the original work and email me about plagiarism and infringement independently, this is really just straight up copyright infringement. There are lots of legally free images and tools online people can use for references. Just because I or other creators share our work online, it doesn’t mean that our work are suddenly free for all to exploit. To see someone praised, awarded, winning prize money, and shamelessly doing interviews while claiming credit despite copying so much of another person’s work... the audacity and utter disrespect. I don’t know how someone begins to think that this is ok and is something they can be proud of. I’m so speechless I can’t even begin to process what to do. Just insane.