Another month has escaped us, and we find ourselves entering a new year still in flux; we are in a sort of suspended animation due to a certain municipality and their utter lack of accountability with public art. Ten months without pay is stupid. It's wrong. When we expressed this politely in tears to city officials, they told us to "get a job." We have jobs, THIS is our job. Unbelievable.I need to be where the love flows for Artists; Artists who only wish to give back to our communities something that is lasting and iconic, and get paid. You see, getting paid for our time is how we survive, just like everyone else. If an Artist does anything free, just for exposure, they simply end up naked.
Our naked journey with this current City conundrum is to raise a work of art that means something to all of us and encourages love through the icon of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. We are following a parallel to the journey of this man in a small way, as it was his effort to expand the civil rights movement despite the conditions of the masses or the unwillingness to believe by the people in charge. We wish to simply get art on a bridge, but we struggle with how painfully difficult it is. All this in a city that claims to be a home for Art.
On the flip side, greener pastures may move our industry north; the direction in which our image of Dr. King points. Pointing us onward and upward always, we take these lessons, heal these burns, pick up shop and build this piece in a different city, infuse the art with the love of the art alone, and give it the respect it deserves. We deserve that too. What ever happened to respecting Artists around here, anyway. Food for thought...
