# What is going on with BeakerFA and his works?



## karbonpotassium (Feb 26, 2009)

My apologies if this is not the correct forum for this.

A few minutes ago I was thinking about the artist and thought I would check out his body of work again. But when I went to the "Images" section from the main site the link to his page was missing. Though the page is still there (http://www.dimensionsmagazine.com/Weight_Room/BeakerFA/beaker.html), at least for now.

Still curious, I went to Wilson Barbers' page and found that BeakerFA's illustrations are missing from the story "Felicia's Charm" and that the description of the story no longer has the line: "(Illustrated by BeakerFA)"

Anyone have a clue as to what is going on?


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## RVGleason (Feb 26, 2009)

His illustrations are still up on 'One of Us'. Hope all is well.


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## Observer (Feb 26, 2009)

Yes, there was a big and unfortunate dustup over his work started by third parties on a forum outside our library. As a result Beaker requested that it be taken down. Wilson and our webmaster honored his request.

eta: I merged the two threads and suppressed the duplicate post


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## Wilson Barbers (Feb 27, 2009)

Over at the Main Board, a member took some of Beaker's graphics (along with those of another fanta-sizer artist), posted them out of context and initiated a heated discussion of WG fantasizer art that grew pretty nasty over the length of the thread. Beaker, for a variety of reasons, asked me to remove his galleries, so I eliminated the links to his pages and recoded three of my stories to take their illustrations out. I _was_ able to convince him to let the graphics for "Three Years" and "One of Us" remain for now: at this point, I have a hard time imagining either story without them attached.

At some point, all the gallery pages will be removed from the site - or at least renamed so people can't click on 'em.

Me, I'm utterly disheartened by the fact that a group of self-righteous _Dim_ siters could be intolerant of artwork that I view as essentially fantasy. Of all the FA artists out there, Beaker has long been one of the most gifted and lighthearted: his fantasy figures have a sense of playfulness to 'em that particularly speaks to me. Over a month after the thread has died down, I'm still feeling prickly about it. . .


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## elroycohen (Feb 27, 2009)

Wilson Barbers said:


> Me, I'm utterly disheartened by the fact that a group of self-righteous _Dim_ siters could be intolerant of artwork that I view as essentially fantasy. Of all the FA artists out there, Beaker has long been one of the most gifted and lighthearted: his fantasy figures have a sense of playfulness to 'em that particularly speaks to me. Over a month after the thread has died down, I'm still feeling prickly about it. . .



For what it's worth, I was also disheartened as well as shocked by that thread myself.

In fact, since then, when I'm pestered about why I don't participate anywhere else but the library I point right to that train wreck.


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## Wilson Barbers (Mar 1, 2009)

Goitta admit I'm with you on that 'un. I tried responding and offering an alternate PoV for a good length of the thread, but, after a while, decided that the lines were already too firmly drawn, and I wasn't getting anywhere.


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## Oirish (Mar 1, 2009)

That is very unfortunate. His works are missed.


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## RVGleason (Mar 1, 2009)

Just looked up that train-wreck thread and it is a mess. I remember seeing it early on and just moved on and didn't bother to check on it later. It's a shame that so many people took such issue with images that were taken completely out of context. I was especially dismayed on someone placing a word cartoon on one of Beaker's works, literally putting words in the character's mouth were known were intended and totally taking the cartoon out of context. Wilson tried to steer the thread to argue on behalf of the original intent of the work and artists, but his posts were either ignored or misconstrued as well. 

I really hope Beaker won't take his work off the web. I myself enjoyed them and appreciated them as art. He did a portrait of my dear friend PlumpLin that she loves and that I think is wonderful. His portrait of Pauline, whom I've also done cartoons of, I found charming. I particularly found his most recent work for the story 'One of Us' delightful, especially the final image with the spark of aliveness in the eyes of the main character. 

Wilson, if you could please relay to Beaker that there are those who appreciate his work for what it is and in it's proper context. I will respect his decision if he decides to remove them, though I hope some kind of compromise can be reached. It'd be a shame if it disappears because some clueless people on this site just don't 'get it'. 

RV :eat1:


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## elroycohen (Mar 1, 2009)

Theres a culture that exists here in the library that is often misunderstood and therefore not given much respect even within our own community. Being marginalized and even looked down upon is one thing Ive come to accept, but singling artists out and presenting their work out of context simply to manipulate an incident is inexcusable.

Ill stop there before the mob above starts grabbing for their pitchforks and torches.


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## Wilson Barbers (Mar 1, 2009)

RVGleason said:


> Wilson, if you could please relay to Beaker that there are those who appreciate his work for what it is and in it's proper context. I will respect his decision if he decides to remove them, though I hope some kind of compromise can be reached. It'd be a shame if it disappears because some clueless people on this site just don't 'get it'.
> 
> RV :eat1:



I surely will.


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