Tuesday, July 20, 2010

WHAT ABOUT KENTUCKY ARTISTS?


I HEARD THIS MORNING THAT A MAJOR PIECE OF ARTWORK HAS BEEN SELECTED FOR THE NEW ARENA DOWNTOWN.

I AM NOT PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN THE ARENA, BUT I AM DISMAYED TO READ THAT "THE COMMITTEE" HAS SPENT OVER $200,000 ON A COMMISSION FOR A LARGE PIECE OF ART, DONE BY AN ARTIST IN ARIZONA.

KENTUCKY HAS HUNDREDS OF WONDERFUL AND TALENTED ARTISTS, AND ALTHOUGH THERE WERE KENTUCKY ARTISTS AMONG THE APPLICANTS, NONE WAS CHOSEN.

I RECENTLY POSTED A PHOTO OF A WONDERFUL LARGE-SCALE PIECE BY ARTURO SANDOVAL, THE ONE AT THE WATER COMPANY. IT, OF COURSE, EVOKES WATER IMAGES, AND SOMETHING LIKE THAT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR THE ARENA ON THE RIVER FRONT. 

THE "ART" PICTURED ABOVE, SUPPOSEDLY RESEMBLES WATER, BUT I FIND IT RATHER STATIC AND REPETITIVE...

WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS.


4 comments:

  1. Marilyn,

    I'm like you... I think it looks static and repetitive. If it were setting on the floor, instead of hanging, I think people would take it to be fencing instead of art.

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  2. I think it stinks...I could even see artists in bordering states being invited to submit ideas...at least the money would have had a much greater chance of circulating in the region if the commission had been awarded to a regional artists...do you know of any textile artists who submitted?

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  3. Sad, they should have only chosen a KY artist.Arrrrggggghhhh.

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  4. When Knoxville put in the convention center, they wanted art work. They only picked people from out of state and a few out of the country!!! One man from Italy did glass birds and it was over $100,000 just to ship them in! The guy from New York State did a quilt, and it was terrible. Out of fabrics from the 70's including polyester double knit, nad it faded in less than 5 years. So then they asked local guilds to make a quilt for free after they had paid him $10,000! Ugh. I get so mad with these people. It seems that people only think that artists from far away are worth it. Same with the galleries around here. Dorreen Speckman had said that a celebrity is someone who lives over 50 miles away and has a slide presentation. I do hand quilting for customers, and fortunatly, people now want hand quilting again instead of machine quilting. So I'm busier than ever. But trying to convince nonquilters that it's art is like hitting your head on the wall, and the wall broke down.

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