Not only have I been working on the ugliest painting of all time -- it started that way, anyway, and I'm hoping to drag it towards being less ugly; more news as it develops -- today I learned something very sad.
My sign is gone. I'm almost certain it was there this morning: As I drove by that spot on my way out for the day, I saw someone standing at the bus stop behind my sign, and I thought, "I didn't realize that was a bus stop. If I'd put my sign up the other way around, people could've looked at it while they were waiting." I feel fairly sure I would've noticed if my sign was missing then, even if I could only have seen it from the back.
It was definitely gone when I came back this afternoon, though. I drove around to see if there were any sign crews or something in the area, maybe see if I could get the sign back.
I'm surprised at how hurt I am. If you'd asked me, I would've said I expected it to be taken down. But somehow I thought my sign might be exempt, because it's not in the way and it doesn't say anything and is basically innocuous. I thought maybe it'd just be left alone.
For all I know, someone took it to hang in their house. Which would be okay by me, actually. It's the not knowing which is bothering me: I don't know if the sign's in a dumpster somewhere or on someone's wall or in an evidence locker.
Three months isn't bad, I guess.
Hey, Chris, I would have been SO tempted to steal that myself. I'm sure someone has fallen in love with it and it is now hanging in their cool groovy bedroom, and they pick up other cool groovy people in bars and bring them home and say, "yeah, I stole that sign from the highway. Anonymous art project. Bad-ass."
Three months is a good run. You have to do about eight hundred more before Deitch gives you a show, however.
She sez:
Anonymous art project. Bad-ass.
Clearly you've been in Brooklyn too long. This is New Jersey. No one out here would say that. Out here they'd say, at best, "Whaddafuck? Fuckin' fuck. Real estate taxes mumble grumble."
I don't think it would hurt as much if I weren't pretty sure that it was taken down by a scowling police officer with a high-and-tight haircut and his trousers bloused, then promptly thrown in the nearest dumpster.
But what do I know? I'm just being provincial myself, assuming no one out here in the boonies (ten whole miles from midtown Manhattan!) has any inkling of the finer things in life. This after hearing that my former neighbor across the street was a Julliard-trained pianist and art collector. Too bad he died before I met him.
Anyway. Danny said to me in e-mail:
PLAN REVENGE. This may be particularly satisfying.... When my work doesn't get the attention and adulation it deserves, my revenge is to raise the bar on myself.
Which is the direction I was heading in anyway, but I would never have called it REVENGE. It's a great way to think of it, though. REVENGE. For REVENGE, I'll do something even bigger and better next time.
If I had the money, I'd have another one made, too, and put it up in the same spot. Maybe I should take up a collection through PayPal. I only need $75 or so.
very cool. I don't know if this is helpful or falls into your idea of how to do this project..but. I set up some parameters early on as to what I would define as success for my outdoor projects. This is a while back so I may be omitting some stuff. The first thing I considered is that the longer the piece was up, the more successful it was....i.e. if it was good and gone in a day, what was the point for me?
So one of the things that resukted was that work was put up at a ladder height that people could not disturb without bringing a ladder.
My New York experience suggests that your sign was taken down probably by the DOT (Department of Transportation) they are usually on the job in about 3 months (good run, Chris). That occured for me as well. This year's projects were mostly on privately owned buildings , many with for sale signs so I know I can get a few months.
Danny sez:
I set up some parameters early on as to what I would define as success...
I know you did. That's a little too abstract for me, and a little too forward-thinking. I live in the moment. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel. More importantly, I am extremely attention-challenged.
I still haven't found the place for my next sign -- I still haven't found the money! -- but I doubt it'd be up too high, anyway, because then I'd need a ladder, and I don't have one. Well, I have a short one. But not a really good one. (Also, I'd need one rated to my weight -- not easy to find, and they cost extra. I know, I know, I should paint more, then I'd eat less.)