Posted on 10/08/2004 4:45:29 PM PDT by DameAutour
SAN FRANCISCO - The artist who misspelled the names of famous people in world history on a large ceramic mosaic outside Livermore's new library can spell one word with ease: N-O. That's Maria Alquilar's new position on fixing the typos.
She had planned to fly to California and put the missing "n" back in Einstein and remove the extra "a" in Michelangelo, among other fixes. But after receiving a barrage of what she called "vile hate mail," Alquilar said Livermore is off her travel itinerary and there'll be no changes by her artistic hand.
"No, I will not return to Livermore for any reason," Alquilar, of Miami, told The Associated Press in an e-mail. "There seems to be so much hatred within certain people. They continuously look for a scapegoat. I guess I am the sacrificial goat."
She previously told officials in Livermore, about 40 miles east of San Francisco, that she would fix the 11 misspellings. She asked for $6,000 plus travel expenses to correct the work they paid her $40,000 to create. The city council, faced with the embarrassing prospect of leaving the typo-strewn work in front of its spanking new library, voted 3-2 to approve the expenditure.
Now it appears the fix is a no go.
Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena and Councilwoman Lorraine Dietrich did not return calls seeking comment on what their next move would be.
Alquilar explained that it took her a lot of time and money to create the work, a brightly colored 16-foot-wide circle made up of individual tiles depicting the names and images of famous people in world history.
She noted that plenty of people from the city were on hand during the installation who could and should have seen the errant spellings, she said.
"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 before deciding to leave the work as is.
"The people that are into humanities, and are into Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she told The AP.
When asked whether she chose the words and names for the work or whether the city provided her with a list, Alquilar took an artistic stance in response.
"The art chose the words," she said.
How many books could have bought with this money?
Since it now belongs to the state, it should sell tickets to use a jackhammer on this substandard art. Maybe they can recoup some of the cost and hire a local artist to creat a more fitting piece. Heck, I would go with a butterfly garden at this stage of the game.
The long route, is suing her butt off. The city was willing to pay for her to come out for corrections. Most of the emails did not come from Livermore and she is just being petulant. Now, she should come and make corrections on her own dime. By the time this played out, I am sure that the mural would be very thoroughly chipped. It will be a good reminder of how transitory her chosen meduim is.
Excellent idea!
Place a photograph of the artist right under it, with the legend, "Can You Find The Spelling Errors This Sub-Literate Artist Made?" Make the mosaic the first stop for every group of school children who are brought to the library.
Does seem somewhat familiar.
Maria Alquilar will be on Fox News momentarily.... (Monday 11 Oct, 9:50 am).
I have an idea. Put up a plaque that reads 'This artwork created by Marie Alkazar'. Let's see how she reacts to having her name misspelled.
The library should hung a sign adjacent to the mural, stating that the errors is the result of poor education and due to the fact that contracts must be given to unqualified people in order to be politically correct.
Who died and made Blake God?
Because true artists can't spell?
Publick skrewls at wurk (it's the "thought" that counts, not the accuracy). Why would the LIBRARY (of all places) leave this gross error glaringly available for taxpayers to scorn daily? 11 misspellings??? Good grief! They should chisel out the erroneous tiles and let local 5th graders come up with their own replacements.
Who died and made Blake God?
Thus showing that she's neither.
I bet she was the low bidder.
Sensitive my a**. She is a cheesy New York slut. The only question left is, What kind of fools are running Livermore? ""
Well Said.... I wonder how many people or organizations will enlist her in the future? Her $40,000 will have to last her a very long time, IMO, based on her ineptitude and her lack of humility in the followup. I hope she NEVER gets another "commission" to do anything.
She made the comment somewhere along the way that this work had "languished" in her studio for 2 years before the city bought it. If so, does this woman live in a cave or what? 2 years and no one told her words were mis-spelled? Does she live in a cave? Only have friends who cannot spell any better?
If this doesn't highlight the awful state of education in America today, I don't know what does. Surely she had a library somewhere near her where she could have at least double-checked the spellings. What a moron!!! I personally hope she NEVER EVER gets more work.
Do you do drugs daily or is it just a part time affair?
My God!! Don't the city council members realize how many hungry children they could have fed with that money? Oh, the humanity!
Maybe it's just me, but she looks eerily like my mother.
"Do you do drugs daily or is it just a part time affair?"
What do you mean by that? Do you actually have a point or are you just a jerk.
You are asking us to believe their is no accepted correct spelling of Einstein. You are either making an attempt at sarcasm (if so you need to close tags) or are clueless.
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