Farting Unicorn Squabble: Colo. Artist Makes Nice With Elon Musk

EVERGREEN, CO – An Evergreen artist who ended up in a Twitter battle with Elon Musk over the alleged unauthorized use at Tesla of his "farting unicorn" design announced that a settlement had been reached over the weekend.

Tom Edwards, owner of Evergreen pottery studio Wallyware was the underdog in a copyright battle that went viral this year. Musk was a fan of Edwards' 2010 mug design that showed a cartoon of a unicorn farting with the slogan, “Electric cars are good for the environment because electricity comes from magic.”

Edwards found out that Musk had incorporated the farting unicorn into a secret Tesla design in 2017, which then showed up on the car's sketch pad. Then used the same image appeared on a company holiday card.

“You can’t just steal someone’s art, tweet about it and then say ‘We’re even ’cause I sold some of your work for you,’” Edwards said in an interview with The Denver Post. Edwards hired a lawyer this year to ask for royalties for the use of the image.

Musk, in grumpy tweets now deleted, opined that Edwards should be glad for the publicity that his connection to Tesla had generated.

Meanwhile, Edwards started to create and sell other pottery pieces with the unicorn and phrases such as "Don't be a fart. Don't steal art."

When the Guardian wrote about the conflict, even author J.K. Rowling joined the Twitter fray, tweeting: "The spinoff you never knew you wanted."

Now that Edwards and Musk have made nice, Edwards said he wants to get back to the pottery studio he said.

"I’ve always been a Tesla fan, and I’m looking forward to getting back to making pots and selling them in my online store," Edwards wrote on his website.

Edwards will also be collaborating on a mural, possibly in Hawthorne California near SpaceX headquarters, in collaboration with “Arts Bridging The Gap’s LA Street Art Initiative in Los Angeles.

Image via YouTube

Get Patched In:
Stay up-to-date with Colorado news with Patch! There are many ways for you to connect and stay in touch: Newsletters and Email Newsletters and Email Alerts|Facebook