Did Madonna Rip-Off Freelance Artists?

Madonna is always doing something to piss somebody off, it seems. Whether she’s speaking her mind or putting her antics on stage (like making out with Drake, much to the disgust of Drake, and well, everybody), the Queen of Pop knows how to ruffle some feathers. But this time, she’s taken her controversy to Instagram, and it’s not because of anything she said. It’s because it appears that she’s blatantly ripped-off the artwork from freelance artists JojoesArt and PixieCold by taking their image and photoshopping her face into it, without giving any credit what-so-ever. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of their work with Madonna’s, from their Facebook page:

Now, I highly doubt Madonna found their image, photoshopped it herself, thought, “Eff you bitches” and posted it. I think what happened is, a fan found their image, put Madonna’s face in there, threw it online, and Madonna’s social media person found it and decided to post it, without checking where it was from.

Still, if I were them, I would be pissed. However, they’ve got a damn good attitude about the ordeal:

So here is our plan: We want to raise attention for the important cause of artist´s rights. Therefore we were thinking, that the easiest way in our age of social media would be, to make this post and somehow get it to reach Madonna.

If Madonna sees this post we want to challenge her: Madonna, if you read this, we would like to tell you, that we appreciate you liking Jojoes piece of art. Therefore we want to create a unique piece of art for you together, a crazy/artistic portrait, and we would love to hand it to you. If you were willing, we could even auction the original picture and donate the money for a good cause. That would be a “compensation” everyone could benefit from. 

How you can support us:

It would mean the world, if you helped us to get this to Madonna by:

– Liking it and sharing it on your wall

– Posting a comment on Madonna´s Instagram/facebook and linking to this post (and PLEASE be nice to her, do not post hate comments, maybe just a nice heart ?)

We know, it is kind of a crazy attempt, but we hope our message gets across! Artists have rights as well (just as Madonna is an artist herself)! We are not meaning to start a war, but to start a #loveRevolution

Thank you everyone! 

JojoesArt and Pixie Cold

So far, their plan is working; the image made its way to Reddit, and many comments on the Instagram photo are now shoutouts to the original artists.

I don’t think she’s going to see any of this though, but it’s a solid effort. I also don’t think she’d care enough to do diddly squat even if she did see it, but if her PR people know what’s good for her, they’ll take the artists up their offer.