Spelling errors of mosaic in Livermore, CA

Here is the story (And my email and her reply to me!):

Livermore mosaic tiles' spelling to be corrected

By Bonita Brewer

CONTRA COSTA TIMES


That ceramic tile mosaic at the entrance to Livermore's new Civic Center library, riddled with misspelled words, will be edited after all -- at a cost to the city of more than $6,000.

The Livermore City Council Monday night voted 3-2 to pay artist Maria Alquilar $6,000, plus travel expenses from her home in Florida, to make and install new tiles with correct spellings.

While admitting to spelling "oversights" in such names as Einstein, Shakespeare, van Gogh, Michelangelo and Schumann, Alquilar has insisted that people overseeing the library project should have caught errors in her $40,000 artwork before the tiles were cemented in.


I sent the following email to the 'artist'.

Way to go with the misspelling in Livermore. How can you be so frikken stupid and say 'Its no big deal'? You should get your butt back to California and fix your mess. You did NOT deliver a good piece of artwork!

Her replyHUK YOU and get a life

 

LOL! omg. Children of "creative spelling" classes.

Heh, even the obscenity was spelled wrong. My gawd... in a software world of spell check... boggles the mind.

 

Sometimes people misspell on purpose, to get past the bad language filters in various email programs, and so they can look up with shiny eyes and say that they have never uttered a cuss word.

But in this case, I am sure she really is a graduate of "creative spelling" classes.

Funny story. But how come noone in city hall caught it before it was put in?
Along with the artist, they should pay to fix it!

 

Maybe shes a member of the Bush family.

BHW

 

Anyone who signed off on it is at least as at fault as the artist.

Infact, if they signed off on it as approved as-is, the artist is totally exhonerated.

PS: no I didn't spell check exhonerated. I will spell check all my f-chat posts for $1299/hr.

 

What i want to know is why the heck are they giving her another 6k to fix it?

vince

 

Now this POS woman refused to come back and fit her F-UP due to all the 'horrible' press and mail she is getting.

 

Did you notice this is a front-page story in the SF Chron this morning?

Gary

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'm on biz travel, but I'll check the web for the story.

 

Besides the spelling blunders, it's a crappy piece of "artwork"

 

I heard an interview on the radio this morning with a member of the library board. She said that they had selected this artist because of her prior works, but that she had presented a "mock up" for approval before they gave the artist the final go-ahead. Apparently, the final product is nothing like her proposal.

 

Ok, now, that is rather retarted if you ask me

EDIT: and it IS a ****ty mural! Jesus!

 

Peter.

I'm glad you're looking out. this is priceless....

 

As a hobby artist myself I have to tell you I came to the conclusion that there is no bad art. You may not like a particular style but it is still art and trust me I have seen some weird ****.

As for this piece. The artist apparently will not come to CA to fix it since there were enough people that sent her hate e-mails that she feels threatend. Peter, if that was your e-mail, you are apparently one of them.

The lesson to be learned:
put somone in charge of oversight of a library project who can read!


FWIW: I don't like the piece either!

 

Besides Peter:

frikken is spelled F R I G G E N

 

You are killing me! Frik'en, freak'en, friggen, etc! That phrase is open slang that can be spelled any way one wants, a far cry from the correct spelling that the artist should have been cognizant of.

As for art in general, it's in the eye of the beholder and I agree that there is no 'bad art' (with the exception of a crucifix in a glass of urine), but when it comes to specific names of specific famous people's names on a mosaic in front of a public library, her errors should be unforgiven if she does not take the initiative and fix it on her own dime.

As for my email to her, it was far from a hate message. I was polite and to the point, which did not warrant her misspelled reply if she is a professional.

 

Peters:
You should post her email/website so everyone can email the arrogant B!tch!!

 

Peter buddy,
re-reading your email to the artist, it's very confrontational and impolite, to put it mildly. However, your points are 100% valid. Idiots like this only understand one thing: leverage. Right now, noone has any leverage on her.

If she faced a huge lawsuit which she could not afford to defend, watch how quickly she gets on the plane.

If she had her mother appear in a dream and scold her, she might do it.

If the mosaic god appealed to her sense of mosaic righteousness, she might do it.

If she needed a $50,000 medical procedure and a california doctor agreed to do it gratis, in exchange for her favour to fix the artwork, she might do it.

We just gotta figure out which button to push with this dumb b!tch. I say send her Ben Cannon for a weekend! Ben, you willing to do this? It's for a good cause!

 

"A colorful mosaic gracing the entrance of Livermore's new library is of a genre known as naïve art because of its whimsical design and childlike nature."

The "artist" is indeed naive! And an arrogant twit to boot!! Great combo...

There must be a shortage of local talent with fifth grade spelling capabilities.

If the goal was "whimsical design and childlike nature", maybe the local elementary schools should have submitted competing (or better yet collaborative) designs to be selected from.

I'll bet the local schools would have been able to put $40K to good use.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing. What a waste. Our town (South San Francisco) also has an asinine "sculpture" sitting in the middle of a traffic island. I don't even want to guess how much we threw at it, since it actually looks "artistic" even though it's still hideous (the whole thing is chromed, and poses a traffic hazard on sunny days).

 

Go for it!

maria alquilar
Miami: 305-573-4452
[email protected]
www.maria-alquilar.com

TVF: My email was very tame compared to what I probably would have told her a few years ago!

 

If this is indeed true (I have no doubt) then the board, as well as the artist should be held to account. Someone must have signed off on the completed project before final payment was made, who was that?

 

No big deal, smack out the offending panels and go find the guy that puts the "4 FT NO DIVING" in the sides of the pool..........


Next question.........

 

She has 3 pictures of the one at the Livermore Library no mistakes in it but it does not show the one with the peoples names. If I confused you goto her site and click on the installation and click the next button till you see livermore libray. I got a good laugh at it.