Update (12/16/15): A representative from Taylor Swift's team has issued the following statement to Complex regarding the claims:
"A fan has stated that she created the watercolor drawing of a fox, added some of Taylor's lyrics and signed the artwork as her own, posting it. Ms. Swift, believing it to be the fan's original work, reposted the fan's art, with her own comment, continuing the social media conversation. Ms. Burguieres did not contact Taylor's office, but she posted on social media her claim that the fan had used her drawing. We found that posting, accepted it at face value and immediately took down Taylor's posting of the fan art.
At no time during these postings did Ms. Burguieres contact our office directly. Not withstanding the huge publicity this has generated for Ms. Burguieres and her store, in early November Ms. Swift's office made a fair offer of payment well above a reasonable licensing fee for the short time that the fan art was posted online. The offer was for a payment to Ms Burguieres—there was no requirement of a contribution to any charity.
Her lawyer further advised us that Ms. Burguieres chose to go after Taylor only and not against the woman who has admitted she used Ms. Burguieres' work as inspiration. Ms. Burguieres' lawyer acknowledged Ms Swift's action was unintentional, but rejected the offer. She promised to get back to us with an explanation of why she felt Ms Burguieres was entitled to more money, but she never did that and the next we heard was Ms Burguieres' new posting. We have tried on multiple occasions to address Ms Burguieres' concerns, but these actions make it clear to us that this is just an unfortunate effort to extract more money and more publicity."
See the original post from 12/15/15 below:
An artist in New Orleans is claiming that Taylor Swift used one of her drawings to promote her album 1989. The problem is that, according to Allie Burguieres, she didn't get credit for her work.
Burguieres says she was "astonished" when she noticed Swift had used a copy of her original art on Instagram. The post from October featured the image of a fox with lyrics from her song "I Know Places," but had another artist's signature.
Burguieres writes in an open letter on her Facebook that she reached out to Swift's team in hopes of being compensated and credited for her work, but received no response. Several days later Swift's team took the photo off of her social media accounts, but apparently didn't offer any recognition that she was the artist. The fox image has since been shared and recreated by Swift's fans.
"Taylor, as a professional, would you agree to such terms from Apple, or Spotify? My work is my living—it is how I pay bills and support my family and employees," Burguieres wrote in the open letter. "Many of your fans are professional artists, and support themselves and their families with earnings from their intellectual property. "
She also claims that months after getting an attorney involved, Swift's team offered her a four figure payment under the stipulation that it would all be donated to charity.
"This isn’t just up to what she thinks I may deserve or what I don’t deserve," she told The Huffington Post. "This is basically artists’ rights. I shouldn’t have to fight so hard just to be credited."
