Michael White at work on the Count Basie mural in November. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Here’s a strange one.
A Red Bank artist who recently completed a popular large mural of jazz great William “Count” Basie was surprised this week to find a photo of the mural on Facebook – with someone else taking credit for painting it.
As reported on redbankgreen in November, Red Bank artist Michael White painted the eye-catching mural of the Red Bank-born musician on the side of the Monmouth Meats building at 110 Monmouth Street. (see story below)
RED BANK: ARTIST AND BUTCHER JAZZ UP WALL WITH COUNT BASIE MURAL
This week, he came across the post pictured below on the page of a Facebook group with the name “I grew up in new Jersey (sic)” that has 3,500 followers.
The photo was posted by an account with the name Robert Oberkehr, with an address listed as Toms River.
“I painted a mural of Count Basie in Red Bank, his hometown, where I happen to live,” Oberkehr’s post reads. “I did it 18 straight days in November,’’ it continues.
The text is identical to a post White himself had posted to a Weird NJ Facebook group hours earlier. Oberkher’s post was followed by a long string of comments from people complimenting Oberkehr on work he had nothing to do with. One commenter expressed the hope that he gets more commissions to do more murals.
Oberkehr has the titles of “Group Expert” in the “I grew up in new Jersey” (sic) Facebook group.
The 3,500 member group appears to be a copycat of two other Facebook groups with the same name (just different capitalization) and more members, one with 41,000 members the other with 76,000.One administrator of the group is identified as Kaye Odom with an address listed as Sherwood, Arkansas. Another has an address of Los Angeles and a third person listed as moderator is listed in England.
White said he filed a report on Facebook Tuesday morning. By the afternoon, it appeared to have been removed.
“I frequently see my own paintings posted to various Facebook pages, usually unattributed,” White told redbankgreen in a text message. “Though it’s nice that people find my art worth sharing, sometimes I comment that they should include the artist’s name, and in rare cases that actually happens. But I draw the line at someone removing my name using text from my posts creating the illusion that they made the artwork.”
redbankgreen reached out to Oberkehr, who said he too, was a victim in this case. He said he never made the post about the mural and has nothing to do with the Facebook group.
“It was hacked,” he said of his Facebook account in a text message. “The contributor’s name was replaced with my name.”
“Someone (a bot, spammer or hacker) is playing games,” he continued. “There are many dirt bags on social media who have it in for other people.”
The incident occurred the same week Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg announced he was getting rid of the company’s fact checkers.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
