Posted on 10/09/2004 10:30:13 AM PDT by MikalM
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."
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.
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."
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.
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."
The city has not decided what to do if Alquilar, who lives in Miami, refuses to return, but officials are evaluating their options....
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Leave the mural alone. Use it to teach kids the correct spelling of the authors. Make a learning game of it. Hand out the "missing" letters painted on tiles. Have the kids try to find the appropriate spot on the mural to place the tiles.
Along side the mural a plaque should be placed with a reminder to artists that arrogance makes them look stupid.
Ah, poor thing. Probably didn't bother to learn english.
She doesn't strike me as the "thinking" type.
"I think not, it doesn't pass any test but yours. Welcome to Free Republic and be prepared for the spelling police to straighten out your "artistic" posts...."
I don't see that freerepublic.com and art are mutually exclusive at all. Most people here seem open minded to a good argument. I doubt that a good argument holds much sway on DU, so I don't think that any "straightening" is required.
Do you honestly think the artist was deliberately using archaic spellings? Does she use Old English or Middle English spellings on her other works? Doesn't seem likely to me.
William Shakespeare is a major literary figure, and thus there is a standard modern English spelling for his name.
I love the irony of this so-called artist misspelling the names of some of the most well-known artists in history! Yup, she certainly knows more about art than us peasants.
ah yes non responsive to half my post..
I guess a ridiculous nude pic of President Bush is ok with you too? Now I know where "starving artists" come from, the sewer.
]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1239829/posts
Nice straw man argument. The rest of us are talking about spelling a person's name correctly on an artist's mural. By the way, you seem to be the one who is exibiting the most hysteria on this thread.
I wonder if the "art" is a victimization piece?
And I think that the other posters on this thread ought to give you the same treatment that Cheney gave Pat Leahy on the senate floor.
There were plenty of people around during the installation who could and should have seen the missing and misplaced letters, she said.
"Even though I was on my hands and knees laying the installation out, I didn't see it," she said
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1237474/posts?q=1&&page=51
Yeah artistic interpretation, that's the ticket....funny how you posted on that thread but forgot her explanation....
another Lefty victim of their own stupidity and incompetence...blame everyone but herself...
Now that she's been paid $40,000, she'll "consent" for them to tear it down???? LOL.
MM
She is an artist... She is not a politician... She obviously is no expert on spin control and forming a decent argument for herself like the chattering heads we watch on TV all day. Maybe that's why I spent so much time chattering away on this thread. She just seems like some apolitical woman who is getting caught up in a political firestorm, but doesn't have the experience to defend herself. Oddly, I think that the people denigrating her work will only make it more popular. In the art world no publicity is bad publicity. There are a lot of fakers and hacks in the art world that look at negative publicity as a goldmine. I don't think she is one of those.
I ar a Rtist, It aint aportant Af I cud spel gut r not!
Ef u ar aginst My Rt, thun Yu ar a Raysist! Mos Likly a
Honkey Fat Whit Boy. I got payd Tu mak a Piktur fur thea
Liburry and Thets whut I did.
Oh, and don't let his straw man about President Bush throw you. Anyone who was half as smart as he pretends to be would know that written language and spoken language operate by very different rules. No one's transcribed words would approximate a grammatically correct sentence. But this "artist's" words were written, and written words follow very clear and useful rules. But then, if he knew so much, he wouldn't be arguing by analogy (as big of a logical fallacy as is his straw man argument)...
Has there been a picture posted of this artist? She doesn't sound too stable to me.
And I think you're spouting hogwash -- as well as flamebaiting by namecalling against those who disagree with you, and trying to use some sort of bizarre non sequitur to liken them to Kerry supporters. Grow up.
Still, the level of hysteria is bizarre. It's not like the woman is John Kerry in heels.
The only one bordering on "hysteria" here is yourself, with your shrill denunciations of those with whom you disagree.
Nor is this "artist" receiving abuse because of her alleged politics -- or even simply the misspellings themselves. Instead, she is getting a well-deserved drubbing for such fuzzy-headed and arrogant "excuses" on this matter as:
She's getting roasted for her attitude about her errors, not her politics or the mere fact of the errors themselves. If she had just said, "oops, my bad, I'll fix it", this would not have become "an issue". Instead, she's flailing wildly in several directions in order to try to avoid any kind of responsibility for the errors, and to attack those who care that things in libraries should be spelled correctly, at a minimum, and that hired artists should behave professionally and responsibly.Reached at her Miami studio Wednesday by The Associated Press, Maria Alquilar said she was willing to fix the brightly colored 16-foot-wide circular work, but offered no apologizes [sic] for the 11 misspellings among the 175 names.
"The importance of this work is that it is supposed to unite people," Alquilar said. "They are denigrating my work and the purpose of this work." [i.e, by being upset at the misspellings, they're not being "inclusive" -- Ich.]
Alquilar said it took her quite a bit of her own time and money to create and install the work, and that it sat idle at her Santa Cruz studio for two years until the city cleared the way for its installation.
There were plenty of people around during the installation who could and should have seen the missing and misplaced letters, she said. [i.e., it's *other* people's responsibility to spot the errors before the work was completed, not hers -- Ich.]
"Even though I was on my hands and knees laying the installation out, I didn't see it," she said.
The mistakes wouldn't even register with a true artisan, Alquilar said. [*gag* -- Ich.]
"The people that are into humanities, and are into Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she said. "In their mind the words register correctly." [Just.... wow. -- Ich.]
Now, get off that high horse before you fall and hurt yourself.
I note that you signed up to FreeRepublic about the time that this issue first broke -- do you have any kind of connection to the "artist"? Because you seem to be taking this quite personally, and going far out of your way to defend her.
*cough*... :-)
You're kidding, right?
P.S. how many ways did Einstein spell his name? And what century are you living in?
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