Saturday, June 19, 2010

miscommunication?

Recently I was send an email with a message that was suprising to me. It was from someone who had read something about the course I am going to teach at the end of this year at the textile museum in tilburg about dyeing with eucalyptus. India Flint didn't seem to be very pleased that I did this. I was suprised to read this through her blog, you can read what she posted here.

Because there are always two sides to a story I wanted to share you mine. In advance I also want to make clear that I am not doing this because I'm mad or something like that. I just think it is important to see both sides of the story and then form your own judgment on the issue. Below I am posting  relevant email conversations between India and me. I changed nothing of the conversation or the context. the only one thing I left out is India's address and email of course for privacy reasons, I just copy-pasted it from my email inbox.

India if you might read this there is always a possiblilty to discuss the text featured on the website of the textile museum, if you don't agree, I am open to conversation.



----- Original Message -----
From: Wieteke Opmeer
To: india flint
Sent: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:05:57 +0100
Subject: Hai India!

Hai India,

It's been a while and I want to share that I have posted some pics on my blog of my latest collection all dyed with Eucalyptus.
From the designfair where I presented it, I got a lot of nice
reactions, from wich a lot of requests, if I could give workshops in dyeing in Eucalyptus.
I haven't reacted to any of them because I think I don't know enough to teach people everything there is to know about eco dyeing.

I hope you like the collection. If you want to see more I can send you some nice pics of some discovery's I've made with the eco print.
http://blog.wietekeopmeer.nl/20 09/11/eco-eucalyptus-dyed-collection.html


Love Wieteke


ps: If you are okay with it, could you send me your adress so I can send you a thank you supprise? ;)


3-11-2009 7:36

dear Wieteke,

i do follow your blog [it appears in a little window on the side of mine] and saw your lovely pictures and also that you were kind enough to thank me, for which i thank YOU. so many students simply think that after one lesson they can go and teach what has been my life's work
or 
that they can then make collections and present my ideas without acknowledgement. You on the other hand are taking an honourable path and it makes me very happy.

lots of love

India

(left adress out because of privacy reasons)



----- Original Message -----
From: Wieteke Opmeer
To: india flint
Sent: Mon, 31 May 2010 12:36:42 +0200
Subject: Hai

Hey India,

I wanted to let you know that I am asked to give a dye workshop at the textile Museum in Tilburg. After long thinking I have decided to give a one day course but I will only teach what I think I know best at this moment and that is eco dyeing and printing with eucalyptus. It will be a one day course about the basics of dyeing and printing with eucalyptus, I am also giving a presentation about my work as well as your work. I am not planning to copy your beautiful style or steel your work. I hope you understand that I will do this with the highest respect to you and your work. And that I will give you credit for the things I learned from you.
I just wanted to let you know before you might find this out another way,

Kind regards and with deep respect
Wieteke Opmeer



31-5-2010 15:10

thanks for letting me know, Wieteke

warm regards
India

8 comments:

dorie said...

leven en laten leven, eerlijk en oprecht... het is altijd goed om de andere kant van het verhaal te laten zien

Wieteke I. Opmeer said...

dankjewel Dorie!

india flint said...

Wieteke...I was merely amazed that according to the Museum text, you were now able to teach [as I quoted on my blog verbatim from the Museum page]
"everything you need to know about dyeing with eucalyptus"
I myself do not know everything there is to know about this subject and so I was very impressed with the communication!
as I said in my blog, perhaps I should sign up for the class...or retire!!
I never said anything about being angry...

Wieteke I. Opmeer said...

Hi India,
I'm glad you are reacting to my post. I never said you were angry.I just wanted to let people know that I didn't post my post because I was agry, I just was suprised.

I will try to let the museum change the text, because you are right, I don't know everything about dyeing with eucalyptus as you said this would be impossible. But I do still think you could have just emailed me about this instead of posting it in such a way. I respect your work very much so I hope you treat my work also with respect. I hope we can still keep good contact because it would be a shame to let one sentence change our good contact.
kind regards Wieteke

india flint said...

well, i guess i was being careful because i didn't mention your name in my blog
whereas on the other hand you have published our personal correspondence without prior discussion

[a lesson to all that you might not know where your emails end up!]

so let's let it stand and agree that perhaps sometimes things may be lost or transformed in translation....

ina said...

Hallo Wieteke, ik heb nu beide blogs gelezen over dit onderwerp en ik denk dat je dit soort "conflicten" nooit helemaal kunt voorkomen - het wiel is al 100 keer uitgevonden en ondanks alle goede voorzorgen kan er altijd wel iemand zijn die zich in haar wiek geschoten voelt. Ik heb ook nog even verder op je blog rondgekeken........ inspirerend.
groet,
Ina.

Wieteke I. Opmeer said...

Hoi Ina,
dankjewel voor wat je hebt geschreven, ik ben het met je eens, het is bijna onvermijdelijk dat dit soort "conflicten" voorkomen. Hoe erg ik ook m'n best ervoor doe, je ziet toch altijd wel iets over het hoofd.
dankjewel voor je complimenten over mijn andere werk! en binnenkort komt er weer nieuw nieuws over mijn werk in plaats van over conflicten.
Wieteke

Unknown said...

Als iemand niet wil dat zijn of haar kennis wordt doorgegeven, moet geen les gaan geven.....En zoals ik het lees, ga jij heel zorgvuldig met je opgedane kennis om en ben je zeer respectvol naar je bron van kennis.