DOWN WITH PANTS!

An artist is charging a library in Livermore, California $6,000 plus expenses to fix a mural that she created that contains 11 spelling mistakes. Names like Van Gogh (Van Gough), Shakespeare (Shakespere) and Einstein (Eistein) were brutally misspelled but the artist will not suck it up and admit her mistakes. Instead she is pulling a typical artist response by saying "The people that are into humanities, and are into Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words. In their mind the words register correctly."

What a load of crap. If you make a mistake, even if it's art, you should correct it and not pull "I'm an artist, you wouldn't understand" defense. She made a spelling mistake, plain and simple and should correct it free of charge. There is some blame to be placed on the library and the city council for not checking the work before paying the final amount owed and for agreeing to pay her to fix it. But what kind of artist is happy with a work that full of mistakes? She should fix it on her own accord purely because it reflects so poorly on her.

The following is an email I wrote to the artist Maria Alquilar. I'm not one to write emails to people or to editors, but this really got under my skin for some reason and I felt I had to say something directly to this artist. If you would like to do the same, her email is alquilar@hotmail.com

Hi Maria,

I just read the article on Yahoo news about your piece for the Livermore library and I was appalled. I'm sorry, but you should not charge them to fix your mistakes. If they gave you the wrong spellings then I can understand you wanting to charge them. However if you just misspelled these words on your own it is your responsibility to fix them.

What kind of artist is happy with a work that is as flawed as this one sounds to be. And don't give me that "if an artist saw it he wouldn't even notice the words". That's garbage. You produced a mural (I'm sure it's great otherwise) that has massive spelling mistakes in it at a library! You have to be embarrassed that one of your works is so amazingly flawed. If you never fixed the item can you understand how people like myself would look at the mural, appreciate the work and artistry and then notice the spelling mistakes and absolutely dismiss this piece as a joke or a fraud? Can you understand how embarrassing this is for the library, an institute of learning, to have spelling mistakes on the art out front?

If this was your fault, I truly think you should just swallow your pride and donate your time to correct this awful mistake. It's a public library for god's sake! It's not like they are rich. You should be ashamed for the shoddy work that you did and the fleecing you are doing.

Sincerely,
Brandon Sparks