Fabulous local artist Dana Depew posted this picture and little note on his Facebook page this morning and the combination of the visual with the latest round of nonsense involving the Cleveland arts scene and Loren Naji is too perfect to not bring to a larger audience. Thanks to Dana for letting us do that.
In Sept 2009, I had a booth at the Tremont Arts and Cultural Festival in which I exhibited a series of new chenille paintings. Next to me was a booth for Frank Jackson’s reelection campaign. Throughout the day there was a steady stream of people lining up to take photos with the mayor and take advantage of the opportunity to discuss their problems directly to him, such as “my neighbor puts his garbage out two days before trash day, I want something done about this now” I spent the whole day in a chair enjoying this rotisserie of nonsense. The mayor would come over and apologize to me for all the people that were blocking my booth in order to get a picture with him and I told him “No problem, your a popular guy”. Throughout the day we would talk about various issues, like the Browns and the weather. I asked him ” Do you really want to do this again for four more years, having to listen to people’s problems all day and complain?” He replied ” I like helping people and making this city better”. At the end of the day I gave him a shirt and had a passerby take a picture of us together. I always wondered what he ever did with that shirt. It seems pretty clear now he merely wiped his ass with it and moved on to more important things.
Well said, Dana.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2014.
The City of Detroit had the same issues with their artists in the 90’s and Aughts. One infamous mayor Young went so far as to bulldoze Tyree Guyton’s internationaly celebrated Hiedelburg St transformation. That’s how backward Detroit got in its outlook on the role of artists in a city’s renewal. You could say it was a bankrupted world view.