Target is in hot water after being accused of stealing an artist’s design and selling it on a t-shirt. Felix d’Eon is a gay Mexican artist who created an image of a pride flag. A strikingly similar image was recently seen on shirts on Target’s website, and d’Eon tweeted his displeasure with the incident.
https://twitter.com/FelixdEon/status/996601738080727045
“I am a gay, Mexican-American artist, and the painting stolen was from my Lotería game, a traditional Mexican game of which I made a queer version,” D’Eon told Business Insider. “The particular image was of a flag, which in the original game is a Mexican flag, but which in my version was re-painted as a gay flag, to invoke pride in my heritage and of other members of the queer, Latinx community.”
The shirt has been removed from the retailer’s online store, but there has been no apology issued as of yet.
According to Business Insider, the company said that it “respects the design rights of others and expects our vendors to do the same.” It went on to say that it has removed the merchandise from the website and that it is in contact with the vendor. “We spent a lot of time selecting Pride merchandise that celebrates the LGBTQ+ and ally community, so we appreciate this being brought to our attention.”
D’Eon was further dismayed by the fact that the model for the t-shirt on the Target site was white, and that the grammar under the artist’s stolen image is incorrect. It reads “Igualdad” which means “equality.” This led the artist to believe that no Latinos were involved in the creation of the tee shirt.
D’Eon originally created the image of the flag to “invoke pride in [his] heritage and of other members of the queer, Latinx community.” You can find a print of the original piece of art for sale on d’Eon’s Etsy site.
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