LIVERMORE [California, home of a US national laboratory - ed.] – It didn't take a nuclear physicist to realize changes were needed after a $40,000 ceramic mural was unveiled outside the city's new library and everyone could see the misspelled names of Einstein, Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo and seven other historical figures.Hey, mistakes will happen, but it seems like there were quite a few. Cut to the artiste:
"Our library director is very frustrated that she has this lovely new library and it has all these misspellings in front," said city Councilwoman Lorraine Dietrich, one of three council members who voted Monday to authorize paying another $6,000, plus expenses, to fly the artist up from Miami to fix the errors.
Reached at her Miami studio Wednesday by The Associated Press, Maria Alquilar said she was willing to fix the brightly colored 16-foot-wide circular work, but offered no apologizes for the 11 misspellings among the 175 names.Thanks for clearing that up, Maria! We wouldn't want you enlightened types to strain yourself by actually looking something up when you don't have a clue.
"The importance of this work is that it is supposed to unite people," Alquilar said. "They are denigrating my work and the purpose of this work."
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The mistakes wouldn't even register with a true artisan, Alquilar said.
"The people that are into humanities, and are into Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she said. "In their mind the words register correctly."
The article also points to Maria's web site where you can find more of her musings and some snaps of the mural in question, although not the "good parts." However, there is a snappy rendition of Dan Rather.
