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conuly
What a spoiled little brat!
The artist who created the now-infamous Livermore library mosaic that contains 11 misspellings says she no longer wants to fix it because of the "nasty messages from people who don't understand art."
Oh, that's nice. They're not being nasty because they don't understand art, they're being nasty (if they are being nasty, I don't know that) because they understand that you messed up. At any rate, it's your mess, you need to fix it. You can't act like a five year old just because people are being big poopyheads.
Maria Alquilar, who complained that her name, too, was often misspelled, said she had been overwhelmed by dozens of phone calls and more than 1,000 e- mails since her errors -- from "Eistein" to "Shakespere" to "Michaelangelo" -- were widely publicized.
Aside from the fact that you weren't famous until very recently... well, no. I'm not finishing.
Fed up, Alquilar said Friday that she was reconsidering her decision to correct her work because the people of Livermore had been so mean.
"If I come out, there will probably be a demonstration," she said. "There is so much anger. I am so upset, I can't even think straight."
That much is obvious. You need to fix your mistakes. It's stupid and petty to say "well, you're mean, I'm not gonna, nyah!"
Alquilar will wait for the issue to die down before she makes a firm decision, but she said she would prefer that the city just tear up the piece, which measures 16 feet in diameter and includes 175 historical names and cultural words.
"I will consent if the city wants to pay to have it removed," she said.
Wait. Wait, you got paid for this already, and you didn't do the job properly, but you'll consent if "they pay to have it removed"? What world are you living in?
City officials, who paid $40,000 for the mosaic, said they hoped Alquilar would correct the mistakes but had not received an answer.
"She indicated that she is not sure if she wants to come back," said Assistant City Manager Jim Piper. "We will get her final decision next week."
Nothing to say here.
Livermore officials selected Alquilar in 2000 to create a mosaic at the entrance to Livermore's new library. It shows a tree of life in its center surrounded by icons representing science, art literature and history. Officials attending the library's opening in May noticed that 10 names and one word on the piece were misspelled.
The artist said the names were spelled correctly on her sketches, but she got them wrong as she was doing the piece. She admits noticing "Einstein" was misspelled but choosing to go forward anyway.
"I just wasn't that concerned," she said. "None of us are particularly good spellers anymore because of computers. When you are in a studio full of clay, you don't give it much thought.
Excuse me? I'm a good speller. How could you not have been concerned? Did it never occur to you that people in a library might be concerned about correct spelling?
"When you look at Michelangelo's David, do you point out that one (testicle) is lower than the other?"
I'm told that men often have one testicle lower than the other. This would mean that it's not a mistake.
Earlier this week, the Livermore City Council voted 3-2 to pay Alquilar $6,000 to fix the misspelled names. State law prohibits removing or changing public art without the artist's consent.
They were going to pay her to fix her own mistakes.
The city debated leaving the misspelled names and creating a game where visitors try to find them -- an idea that angered Alquilar.
"Can you imagine them suggesting that a work of art be used as a game?" she asked. "It is outrageous."
Lots of works of art as used as a game. Here's an idea. If you don't want people to do that, proofread your work, and take enough pride in it to be concerned if you aren't doing your best.
Though some argue the artist should be allowed to spell names however she wants, others say the piece is an embarrassment.
No, she shouldn't. They aren't her names to mangle. And yes, it IS an embarrassment.
Phone calls to the artist started after the city said she would be paid to correct the errors. Alquilar was screening calls when she got a call from a man claiming to be a police officer. She picked up the phone, and the caller joked that he was from a special Livermore unit that is inspecting spelling errors.
Another caller suggested Alquilar had a learning disability, and several used ethnic slurs, she said.
"It turned into a sport for them," said Alquilar, who said she was well educated and not dyslexic.
They shouldn't've done that (though at this point I think I would've clung to dyslexic as long as I could, and certainly not implied that dyslexic means poorly educated).
Alquilar worked on the piece for more than a year and said the whole experience was negative. She said people were unfriendly, and she was offended that she wasn't invited to the opening.
"I just wasn't left with a good feeling, like I would want to fix it for them," she said.
That's nice. You still have to fix your mistakes. You got PAID for it, and if it's wrong, you need to fix it.
She said the piece had been on display for four days before it was completed and viewed by city employees, architects, contractors and library officials. No one noticed the errors, she said.
"That proves that words are not the important part," she said. "The mural is supposed to lead people into discovering different parts of the world and its influences. This one has been detrimental."
It proves nothing of the sort. I doubt people go with a red pencil to look for errors in a mural. Probably they didn't even look that closely at it, which is why they didn't notice.
Maybe she's not a spoiled brat. But I still think she needs to grow up, and own up to her responsibility.
The artist who created the now-infamous Livermore library mosaic that contains 11 misspellings says she no longer wants to fix it because of the "nasty messages from people who don't understand art."
Oh, that's nice. They're not being nasty because they don't understand art, they're being nasty (if they are being nasty, I don't know that) because they understand that you messed up. At any rate, it's your mess, you need to fix it. You can't act like a five year old just because people are being big poopyheads.
Maria Alquilar, who complained that her name, too, was often misspelled, said she had been overwhelmed by dozens of phone calls and more than 1,000 e- mails since her errors -- from "Eistein" to "Shakespere" to "Michaelangelo" -- were widely publicized.
Aside from the fact that you weren't famous until very recently... well, no. I'm not finishing.
Fed up, Alquilar said Friday that she was reconsidering her decision to correct her work because the people of Livermore had been so mean.
"If I come out, there will probably be a demonstration," she said. "There is so much anger. I am so upset, I can't even think straight."
That much is obvious. You need to fix your mistakes. It's stupid and petty to say "well, you're mean, I'm not gonna, nyah!"
Alquilar will wait for the issue to die down before she makes a firm decision, but she said she would prefer that the city just tear up the piece, which measures 16 feet in diameter and includes 175 historical names and cultural words.
"I will consent if the city wants to pay to have it removed," she said.
Wait. Wait, you got paid for this already, and you didn't do the job properly, but you'll consent if "they pay to have it removed"? What world are you living in?
City officials, who paid $40,000 for the mosaic, said they hoped Alquilar would correct the mistakes but had not received an answer.
"She indicated that she is not sure if she wants to come back," said Assistant City Manager Jim Piper. "We will get her final decision next week."
Nothing to say here.
Livermore officials selected Alquilar in 2000 to create a mosaic at the entrance to Livermore's new library. It shows a tree of life in its center surrounded by icons representing science, art literature and history. Officials attending the library's opening in May noticed that 10 names and one word on the piece were misspelled.
The artist said the names were spelled correctly on her sketches, but she got them wrong as she was doing the piece. She admits noticing "Einstein" was misspelled but choosing to go forward anyway.
"I just wasn't that concerned," she said. "None of us are particularly good spellers anymore because of computers. When you are in a studio full of clay, you don't give it much thought.
Excuse me? I'm a good speller. How could you not have been concerned? Did it never occur to you that people in a library might be concerned about correct spelling?
"When you look at Michelangelo's David, do you point out that one (testicle) is lower than the other?"
I'm told that men often have one testicle lower than the other. This would mean that it's not a mistake.
Earlier this week, the Livermore City Council voted 3-2 to pay Alquilar $6,000 to fix the misspelled names. State law prohibits removing or changing public art without the artist's consent.
They were going to pay her to fix her own mistakes.
The city debated leaving the misspelled names and creating a game where visitors try to find them -- an idea that angered Alquilar.
"Can you imagine them suggesting that a work of art be used as a game?" she asked. "It is outrageous."
Lots of works of art as used as a game. Here's an idea. If you don't want people to do that, proofread your work, and take enough pride in it to be concerned if you aren't doing your best.
Though some argue the artist should be allowed to spell names however she wants, others say the piece is an embarrassment.
No, she shouldn't. They aren't her names to mangle. And yes, it IS an embarrassment.
Phone calls to the artist started after the city said she would be paid to correct the errors. Alquilar was screening calls when she got a call from a man claiming to be a police officer. She picked up the phone, and the caller joked that he was from a special Livermore unit that is inspecting spelling errors.
Another caller suggested Alquilar had a learning disability, and several used ethnic slurs, she said.
"It turned into a sport for them," said Alquilar, who said she was well educated and not dyslexic.
They shouldn't've done that (though at this point I think I would've clung to dyslexic as long as I could, and certainly not implied that dyslexic means poorly educated).
Alquilar worked on the piece for more than a year and said the whole experience was negative. She said people were unfriendly, and she was offended that she wasn't invited to the opening.
"I just wasn't left with a good feeling, like I would want to fix it for them," she said.
That's nice. You still have to fix your mistakes. You got PAID for it, and if it's wrong, you need to fix it.
She said the piece had been on display for four days before it was completed and viewed by city employees, architects, contractors and library officials. No one noticed the errors, she said.
"That proves that words are not the important part," she said. "The mural is supposed to lead people into discovering different parts of the world and its influences. This one has been detrimental."
It proves nothing of the sort. I doubt people go with a red pencil to look for errors in a mural. Probably they didn't even look that closely at it, which is why they didn't notice.
Maybe she's not a spoiled brat. But I still think she needs to grow up, and own up to her responsibility.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 12:07 pm (UTC)No, I do not have a copy of the contract sitting on the desk beside me. And unless you do, then howzabout if you stop insisting that things that are pretty obviously true might not be.
If she'd delivered what was promised, the city wouldn't be upset. I know that the sketches didn't contain the spelling errors because the articles have reported that. I know that the *point* of sketches (or sometimes miniatures or models) beforehand is so that the city can look over the various options and decide on the one they like best. The city did not choose the artist and tell her to do what she liked; the city chose the art that she submitted in sketch form, and agreed to pay her X amount of dollars to create that piece on front of the library, and to have it ready by the opening. This is the way commissioned art purchases work in damned near every city across the US.
The law is on her side. An artist creating public art can't be forced by the government to alter that artwork. This is actually a good thing, I should note.
I agree with you. This is a good thing. There is an old saying that hard cases make bad law, and this idiot is a hard case. I would think that most artists can be trusted to pay attention to detail and take pride in their work. I'd hate to have a case like this set a precedent of babysitting good artists. But I am also glad that, in her words, her "career in public art is over." Yay for the free market! Let her be pushed aside for an artist who will pay attention to his or her artwork.
She lives across the country and it would cost her actual money, time, and materials to work again on this project. Why shouldn't the city offer her money to hire her?
Because it's insane that the city should have to pay her money to fix her own errors. Because it's insane that she could fuck up to that degree and not take any responsibility for it. When most of us screw up, as we all do from time to time, we get to correct the situation even if it does cost us time and money.
What makes this even worse, goddess help me, is that she KNEW she was making at least one of the errors. She has admitted to noticing that she misspelled "Einstein" while she was doing the installation, and chose not to correct it then. And now she wants to be paid to fix it?
I want you to hire her to create some art in your house. Some permanent art. Pay her a lot of money. Or, better yet, hire her to do your landscaping. Sure you'll end up paying to have a tree blocking your front door, but you can rest secure in the knowledge that you can also pay to have it removed.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 12:21 pm (UTC)