Over on Den of Demons (ball jointed doll forum) someone posted about this semi-famous artist. And well, they realized that her subjects looked really familiar. They discovered that she was taking pictures from doll owners and companies and turning them into art.
But it got even better. People found the exact pictures she was using as "examples". It was really easy because it appears that she was tracing pictures. Using an image editing program to trace the pictures and add rainbows and other colorful things in the background.
She even had Totoro in the background in a couple of her pictures.
It also turns out that she is making over $1,000 for each print she sells. Her work has been in art galleries, she had a deal with Sony, and she even has a clothing line all using traced pictures of a doll.
Doll companies involved were e-mailed and some of them weren't very happy. She was using some stock photos of bjd's from the companies websites. Most doll companies if you want to sell something with a picture of their dolls faces you have to get their permission.
Please check out this site:
http://www.radiotrash.org/mijn/
You can see examples of her stolen work and e-mails from the companies and people involved.
Also, I have been in contact with Mijn Schatje.
I sent her off an e-mail acting as a fan and asking her about the accusations. Of course she denies it.
She also told me she has a doll. When all of this broke she made a comment that she had no idea what a BJD was, then she admitted she knew what they were, but she was using friends dolls as references and she didn't own any herself. She also claims that the pictures people used to prove she traced aren't the pictures she was using as references. She claims she has permission from all people involved, but she doesn't.
Some of the e-mails back and forth between her and other people aren't on the site. She has asked that people don't post correspondences and everyone is respecting that for now. We are sharing her e-mails on the forum and collecting more proof of her lies.
She does know a lot about different kinds of dolls for someone who started out not knowing what a BJD was.
I would direct my friends to the thread over on Den of Demons, but you have to be a member to read it and they aren't allowing any new members on the forum. Den of Angels (another bjd forum) has a thread about Mijn. And it appears either some rabid Mijn fans or Mijn herself has been lurking around and sometimes posting. DoD doesn't want her lurking around and knowing what we are up to.
Sorry this got so long. I'm sure most of my friends don't care about this.
Although I hope one or two people on my friends list take the time to at least look at the site. And if you have a minute share it with others. We are trying to get the word out about Mijn. We want the news to break out of the BJD world. We want everyone to know about this lying fraud.
