Thursday, November 4, 2010

A walk in the park... or the financial district

Earlier today, I ventured downtown, into the financial district with a little packet of prints in my backpack, eager to prove a point. My goal was to distribute at least three prints, and to see what value the fancy suits and ties would place upon the work of a student artist. As it turns out, not much.
Few people would even spare the time to talk to me, let alone have anything they were willing to part with in return for a piece of original artwork. One man, cornered while ordering a hot dog, said he wouldn't take it because he didn't like it. Another, after sparing me around a minute of his valuable time, wouldn't even take the print when it was offered to him for the expense of his time. One woman returned the print as payment for the print.
I found it interesting how even when there was no price tag, and the individuals themselves could determine what they would give in return, many of the people I encountered couldn't come up with anything. They were even reluctant to take the print. Perhaps they thought it was a trick.
For my efforts, I received a lighter and a pamphlet, the pamphlet being from a girl who was handing out environmental information and looking for donations.

These are the prints that were being distributed. It's a representation of Michelangelo's Pièta, executed in screen print, and placing the focus upon Jesus lying in Mary's lap. While it was rather disheartening to receive such poor feedback and have such sparse participation, it does play into my project quite perfectly.
We have a couple more trials to put Pièta through before Monday, so wish me luck!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Alex,

    I was with one of the people that you approached with the print. He offered "his time" in exchange, but I nagged him for it after because I liked it. I intend on framing it.

    Keep up the good work - we're not all dicks.

    Eric

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  2. Thanks very much! Your time is appreciated! I'm not implying that everyone I tried to talk was a dick. Just many of them haha. The reception I got works excellently for the project I'm doing, actually, so I'm rather glad I was ignored by so many people! Thanks again, and do keep checking the blog! I try to update weekly.

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