Artist will fix mosaic, after a spell

Contra Costa Times ^ | 10/14/4 | Bonita Brewe

[SmithL]

The artist who created the now-infamous Livermore library mosaic has had another change of heart and now says she will correct the artwork's spelling errors after all.

Artist Maria Alquilar of Miami, who late last week said she would not return to fix the mistakes after national publicity resulted in hate mail and threats to her safety, said Wednesday that Assistant City Manager Jim Piper has persuaded her to rethink the situation.

"He convinced me the easiest way to lay the matter to rest is to correct it," Alquilar said. "I really want people to see the work's meaning so they stop making issues of things that are unimportant."

She said the mosaic's underlying message, using symbols from the world's different religions and cultures, is one of "enlightenment" and the pursuit of knowledge -- not misunderstanding and intolerance.

Alquilar said while she intends to sign a $6,000 contract with the city to correct the errors, she wants time for the issue to cool down before she returns to town to do the work.

[SmithL]

yure tax dollers at wurk

[michaelbfree]

another idiot artist making their living from "public works" - what a crock!!

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

I'm sure she's hating all of the publicity she's getting out of this.

[shezza]

Geez-o-Pete. They paid her $40,000 to do the error-ridden mosaic in the first place, and now they're paying her an additional $6,000 to fix her erroneous spelling? (Where can I get a gig like this?)

[rolling_stone]

another make work project, this time by the artist...

[Dallas59]

Bad art is anothers money tree..

[Straight Vermonter]

Arrt:

[pabianice]

"I really want people to see the work's meaning so they stop making issues of things that are unimportant."

Literacy matters, you doofus.

[chilepepper]

i thought mosaic was obsolete and replace by netscape.

whoops, or was it netscape is obsolete and replaced by mozilla?

[MamaTexan]

yure tax dollers at wurk

LOL! Our local park has a cool 'artsy' project.

There are concrete columns about 5 ft high covered in ceramic tiles.

All the tiles were individually painted with symbols of Texas (bluebonnets, cows, flags, etc.) by the local schoolchildren, then placed onto the columns.

Total cost- about $750, and the kids think it's cool to visit the park and see their art on display!

[gridlock]

Of course, these are not spelling errors in the classical sense. The names of all those Dead White Males (DWMs) were misspelled intentionally as a sign of disrespect. To correct the spellings really does detract from the meaning of the work.

Of course, it just so happens that the meaning of the work was STUPID!

[Rhetorical pi2]

Picture this "artist" as a kid in the fourth grade - explaining to the teacher why he had so many errors on his spelling test.

"He only wished she would see the meaning, and stop making issues of his work" :o)

[orangelobster]

"national publicity resulted in hate mail and threats to her safety"

It's a mystery why so many a**holes of the self appointed grammar police would stoop to attacking a well meaning artist while there is so much in the world that needs fixing.

[Irish Queen]

This self-involved "artist" reminds me of the vocal music teacher at the up-scale private school were I taught. I'll call her Montique Noble-Lord. She was the only one on the staff that the students addressed by her first name. And for special events like Open House and Graduation everyone on the staff dressed in business clothes (tailored suits or dresses, or suits and ties) except for Ms. Noble-Lord. One year she arrived in black tights and leotard, with a large tied around her hips, another year she dressed in a Japanese Happi Coat, and black bicycle shorts.

She proclaimed she was not a teacher, but an artiste. With a straight face she declared she knew that she was always the most beautiful woman in any room.

At school concerts she only would stay in the hall when she was directing her vocal groups. When asked why she was never present during the rest of the presentations (recitation, skits, class singing, speeches, ...) she replied, "It makes me too nervous. It's the negative energy thing, you know."

Her letters home to the parents had to be heavily editted. Her spelling and grammar was quite creative, (translation: hard to decipher). One time she became ferciously angry when a secretary misinterpreted her draft. "You should have sent it out exactly as I wrote it. Only small-minded people care about things as spelling."

Why did the school keep such a pretenious, silly person on staff? One of the owners of the school belonged to the same new age "church" as Ms. Noble-Lord. And Ms. Noble-Lord was the elected President of that fellowship.

[Irish Queen]

This self-involved "artist" reminds me of the vocal music teacher at the up-scale private school were I taught. I'll call her Montique Noble-Lord. She was the only one on the staff that the students addressed by her first name. And for special events like Open House and Graduation everyone on the staff dressed in business clothes (tailored suits or dresses, or suits and ties) except for Ms. Noble-Lord. One year she arrived in black tights and leotard, with a large scarf tied around her hips, another year she dressed in a Japanese Happi Coat, and black bicycle shorts.

She proclaimed she was not a teacher, but an artiste. With a straight face she declared she knew that she was always the most beautiful woman in any room.

At school concerts she only would stay in the hall when she was directing her vocal groups. When asked why she was never present during the rest of the presentations (recitation, skits, class singing, speeches, ...) she replied, "It makes me too nervous. It's the negative energy thing, you know."

Her letters home to the parents had to be heavily editted. Her spelling and grammar was quite creative, (translation: hard to decipher). One time she became ferciously angry when a secretary misinterpreted her draft. "You should have sent it out exactly as I wrote it. Only small-minded people care about things as spelling."

Why did the school keep such a pretenious, silly person on staff? One of the owners of the school belonged to the same new age "church" as Ms. Noble-Lord. And Ms. Noble-Lord was the elected President of that fellowship.

[dljordan]

I kind of have a job like that. Our off-shore employees create error-ridden software and I correct it.

[Billthedrill]

I'm obviously not an artist, but I simply cannot fathom why spelling errors in names on her work didn't bug the heck out of her. If da Vinci had thrown a couple of extra apostles in The Last Supper it wouldn't have affected its artistic integrity but I bet he'd have cared.