Ha! That's a great suggestion.

I love the idea of painting each penny a different color. It will be a Hirst tribute. Glue them all on a canvas and call it Ritalin. Keep it going Cartain, this is great stuff! Better yet, maybe one of the forum members is an attorney who can represent you? You could get this in court. Or maybe part of the deal you strike is that Hirst must accept payment in person? Maybe put all the money in a glass box filled with formaldehyde?

Yeah, just get a cheap fish tank and your away ;D

haha, first reply to the original post says it all!!!!

From todays independent will upload a scan latter, great to see the forum get a mention

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/hirst-demands-share-of-artists-16365-copies-1054424.html

Hirst demands share of artist's £65 copies

16-year-old's stencil designs fall foul of multi-millionaire artist

By Arifa Akbar, Arts correspondent
Saturday, 6 December 2008

One is an entrepreneurial 16-year-old who takes time off from his schoolwork to create urban stencil designs of cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse and Clint Eastwood, which he sells for £65 on the internet. The other is the Turner prize-winning father of Britart whose diamond-encrusted skull and pickled sharks have brought him a £200m fortune.


Ordinarily, the two figures at opposite ends of the art spectrum should never have cause to meet. But Cartain, the moniker for the teenage artist, has earned the ire of Damien Hirst for incorporating photographic images of his platinum cast of a human skull, For the Love of God, into his graffiti prints. The two artists have become locked in an unlikely art clash that has led Hirst to demand recompense from the teenager for selling £200 worth of images of his skull without permission, says Private Eye magazine.

In spite of his tender years, Cartrain's graffiti can be seen on the backstreets of east London's Brick Lane and Old Street, and his stencils and collages containing recognisable figures such as George Bush and the Queen are sold alongside other emerging artists.

He made a series of collages using photographs of Hirst's skull, some of which imposed the bejewelled sculpture over the faces of figures taken from other photographs. One showed the skull in a shopping basket alongside some carrots. The images were displayed in the online gallery, 100artworks.com, where Cartrain's collages sell for £65, on average.

He was surprised to learn Hirst had not only seen the work but also contacted the Design and Artists Copyright Society (Dacs), who apparently informed the young artist he had infringed Hirst's copyright. The older man has reportedly demanded that Cartrain not only remove the works from sale but "deliver up" originals, along with any profit made on those sold, or face legal action.

Cartrain said: "I made a few collages and my gallery put them up for sale online. After two weeks, the gallery received an email from Dacs stating I had infringed Damien Hirst's copyright on the title of the work (For the Love of God) and that I was to forfeit £200 in fees and the artworks. I handed over the artworks to Dacs on the advice of my gallery. I met Christian Zimmermann [from Dacs] who told me Hirst personally ordered action on the matter."

On his internet forum, Cartrain commended those buyers who managed to secure one of his collages featuring the skull. "Well done to everyone that purchased one before Hirst got involved," he wrote.

Dacs refused to comment. But Hirst's complaint was seen as ironic by some in the art world, given the controversy surrounding the provenance of his skull. Three weeks after the artist unveiled the £50m sculpture, another artist, John LeKay, claimed he had been producing similar jewel-encrusted skulls since 1993.

LeKay, who said he had been a friend of Hirst's between 1992 and 1994, said: "When I heard he was doing it, I felt like I was being punched in the gut. When I saw the image online, I felt that a part of me was in the piece. I was a bit shocked."

The 46-year-old London-born artist used crystal to make his skulls glisten. He was quoted as saying: "When the light hits it, it looks as if it is covered in diamonds."

go for the 200 painted pennies on a canvas and call it first installment. I'll commission one.

Why do you let this idea that you're a 16 year old schoolboy continue ? I mean let's face reality you're an adult aren't you so why would you allow this lie to keep growing ? Other parts of the internet are full of adults pretending to be kids for some seriously dodgy reasons you're not in very good company there are you.

And what a shame that as an artist your response is to just gloat over this piss poor publicity you're getting while others come up with ideas you could have used, what a missed opportunity.

Seeing as you don't seem to believe that i am 16 i must assume you feel my artwork is better than what it should be for my age. If you wish to dispute my age like a small number of people you only need to talk to with a few trusted people on here that actually know me.

OOOH Cartrain are you 22 or are you 16

i heard you put a past up near pow and some dudes burned it

Why would you make such an assumption ? The collage work I've seen being produced by 16 year olds is of a much higher standard than the one's I've seen from you.

Who are these trusted members I should talk to ? they don't seem to be springing to your defence whereas other people whos opinions seem to be trusted don't believe you're 16 either.

@ raiden, I'm not hating on him, I've respect for anyone who gets up but I do think there's a world of difference in being 16 or 21/22. By the time I was 21 I'd a completely different view of the world based on actually having some real experience of it and not just the experience of being a schoolboy. Had I been an artist I would have hoped this would have been reflected in the maturity of my work. There's a huge difference in a story in the press that reads "16 year old schoolboy producing art in his spare time" and "22 year old with nothing to do produces schoolboy art and pretends to be 16".

Yes it would be nice to get a definitive answer wouldn't it although I'm not too sure how that can be done, one anonymous person online says one thing another anonymous person says something different.

My problem with believing cartrain this time around is that I'm pretty sure I remember him saying he was in his early 20's himself from back when I was lurking. Also the way he "broke" this story here with the implications that Hirst was buying the work for his collection just makes me doubt the rest of the story.