Am I a man of the people???

So a few weeks ago I received a 'note' via my DeviantArt.com page, http://marinsstudio.deviantart.com, from a guy claiming to be from Italy. Seemed like a nice enough guy in the brief and horribly written note. All he was asking me was to design an album/CD cover for his band called the Mad Monkeys. Only once before has a musician asked me to design something like this - and he got the shit end of the stick because I didn't even know how to use Photoshop back then - in fact, I'm pretty sure his one-man band is now defunct because the band mates were at odds on how shitty the art was. Not to worry - the hordes of underground "If it Was a Day" fans will rise to the occasion when a reunion tour is announced. But all the same, I was flattered that some teenaged dude half-way around the world dug my art so much that he'd want me to design a logo for his band.

I Googled looking for info on his band to see if they were even legit, but it seems like the illustrious sounds of the teenage italian rock band have not transcended the walls of the garage in which they most likely have played 100% of the time.  

Regardless, I'm all about supporting local artists, and being a realist, I was expecting anything in return.

BUT! 

The minute I shared this info with a few friends, the capitalist light turned on, and I was the bombarded with the conflicts of "what if they get famous - you won't get anything!!!" and all that.

Who cares? I mean, at the end of the day, any jerk off could rip off my art and use it for their own, and I would probably never even know about it. As it is, the "Orphaned Works Bill" that was under review earlier this year would have ensured a crap outlook for artists seeing as to which anyone could use anything as long as the artist didn't contest it - of course it's hard to contest something that being used under the auspices of piracy in some po-dunk town in the middle of fucking Vietnam.

So the hell with it. I put together a design, and I enjoyed every altruistic minute of it. So does that make me a man of the people? Or a fool? Don't get me wrong, my underlying objective is to someday make some money off of my art - but not off of a few broke teenage kids. Where's the pleasure in that???

So here it is - without further ado - back from their world tour and playing here for one night only......... the Mad Monkey design!