A Knockout!

Well, ok.  Maybe I’m exaggerating.  It might be more of a knockdown or maybe even a shove.  But ‘Shove!’ hardly work as a headline.  And if I stick to the precise letter of the view that she expressed, the appraiser has indeed been knocked out.

Recall: the appraiser said the damage to Charlie’s painting made it worthless.  WORTHLESS.  To my ear that means I wouldn’t be able to sell his painting for any money. 

Well, appraiser, the bid for Falling Down Man has now reached $42.12.

Now, I realize that $42.12 is not a huge amount of money.  But still, $42.12 is more than nothing.  So I do feel that the appraiser has been shown to be wrong.

Of course, as in all things conceptual, there are some objections one might make at this point.

Objection #1

I haven’t strictly speaking sold Charlie’s painting.  To sell Charlie’s painting requires finding an individual buyer who is willing to put down a certain amount of money for it.

Objection #2

The bids came from my wife and two friends.  (Thank you Lisa, Paul and Keyne!)  But that doesn’t count.  I have to get bids from people I don’t know.  Otherwise, I haven’t really sold Charlie’s painting but have cajoled people into supporting my project.

Objection #3

$42.12 is nothing.  It’s not nothing in the strict sense.  But come on!  It’s hardly something. 

Ok.  I admit.  These are pretty good objections. 

I don’t think I can really answer the third objection at the moment.  Instead, I’ll just have to wait to see if more people bid on Charlie’s painting.  And if some of those people are relative strangers (or at least people over whom I don’t have any undue influence), then the second objection will be answered as well.

But what about the first objection?   From a conceptual point of view, I think the first objection is the most interesting.  I also think I have an answer to it.  But I will wait until the next post to give that answer, since it is a bit long winded. 

Before I end, however, let me remind anyone reading about the procedure to bid on Charlie’s painting.

You need to go to the following webpage, which will allow you to make a donation to UrbanMinistry.  In the comments section, which appears after you have entered your information, you should write: For ArtWorks945/The Van Gogh Project.

So anyone who thinks Charlie's painting is worth more than $42.12 and who would like to make a donation to ArtWorks945, please put in a bid.

The Auction

Finally. 

After much stretching and turning of ideas in my head, I have decided to hold a cumulative auction for Charlie Spear’s Falling Down Man. 

I am not sure whether there is such thing as a cumulative auction.  As a relative outsider to both the art and fundraising worlds, I don’t know the range of events that people hold in order to mix money and art.  It wouldn’t surprise me much were a cumulative auction to have been held and for the words ‘cumulative auction’ to have a fixed meaning already.  But just to make sure that people understand what I intend to do, here is what I mean by ‘cumulative auction’.

A cumulative auction gives people a chance people to do two things at once: (1) donate money to a cause; and (2) help express their sense of how much a painting is worth.

In this case, the cause is ArtWorks945, an art gallery for the homeless in Charlotte; and the painting, as should be clear by now, is Falling Down Man. 

When you ‘bid’ on Charlie’s painting, you need not bid as if you were trying to buy the painting.  Rather, you will add to the total that has already been bid.  Any money bid will go to ArtWorks945.  So you can think of your bid as a donation if you like.  But you can also see it as a way to express your opinion that Charlie’s painting is worth more than what has already been bid.

And where will Charlie’s painting go at the end of the auction? 

Well, it seems to me that there are two possibilities.  It could go to the person who has put in the most money toward the cumulative total.  I think that this is an attractive option, since it would retain some of the feel of a regular auction.  People who wanted to own the painting outright would obviously have an incentive to put in a larger amount of money than anyone else. 

I think I would have chosen that possibility if there weren’t in this particular case another obvious and it seems to me deserving recipient of the painting.  Tyler Helfrich, the director of ArtWorks945, has told me that they intend to start a permanent collection of art.  As of yet, they have no paintings in their collection.  When I discussed the possibility of a cumulative auction with Tyler, we agreed that Charlie’s painting would be a wonderful first piece in their collection.

So Charlie’s painting will go to ArtWorks 945.

To ‘bid’ on Charlie’s painting, you need to do three things.

(1)  Click on the following link, which will take you to the UrbanMinistry donation page.  

https://www.sagepayments.net/sagenonprofit/shopping_cart/forms/donate.asp?M_id=586502948152

(UrbanMinistry is the homeless shelter to which ArtWorks945 is connected.  Here is a link to its website:  http://www.urbanministrycenter.org/)

(2)  Follow the instructions that will allow you to donate however much money you want to donate.  In other words, ‘bid’ on Charlie’s painting.

(3)  Write the following words in the Comments Box that appears after you enter your information: ArtWorks donation for the Van Gogh Project.

This last step is particularly important -- it is the only way the money will be designated for ArtWorks945; and it is the only way I’ll know how much money has been bid for Charlie’s painting. 

And that’s it. I’ll let the auction run for two months. 

I can’t wait to see what happens.

Lisa

I am sorry to have been so absent on this blog lately.  My life has been very hectic in the last month.  As I mentioned in my last post, teaching always cuts into my freedom to write, think and in general lounge around.  But there has been another cause of my lack of free time lately: two weeks ago I got engaged.

When I started this project, Lisa, my fiancé, hadn’t yet moved into my house.  For those who haven’t read the very first few posts I wrote, my house was the motivation for the Van Gogh project in the first place.  When I bought the house, I thought to myself (and still do think to myself quite often) that a Van Gogh would look just great on one of its walls.  And so I decided to try to trade up to one of his paintings.

Anyone following the blog will know that I had made some genuine progress.  Indeed, by my calculations, I had gotten 1/10^th of the way to a Van Gogh.  But then, as those who have been reading the blog will also know, the USPS chucked a spear into a painting I had traded for and so altered the course the project was taking. 

I am now planning to auction off the painting in question – Charlie Spear’s Falling Down Man -- as something of an experiment concerning aesthetic value.  Of course, that means that I won’t be able to continue my quest for a Van Gogh and hence that I will quite likely never end up owning one.  But at the moment, I couldn’t care less.  Why?  Because I now get to have something in my house every day that is way more beautiful than any of Van Gogh’s paintings: Lisa.

I have learned that it really is good to thank the Universe for bringing goodness into one’s life.  So I can’t help but tell the Universe:

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

And I can’t help but tell Lisa: I love you.

In my next post, which I plan on writing very soon, I will give an update on the auction.  It really is very closer to taking place.

Delays, Changes, and A New Plan

The beginning of the school year always throws me off.  I suppose that I shouldn’t be too surprised by that.  I go from having nothing but free time for three months to a life of real responsibility.  But every year I find myself in a state of near total confusion:  wait, this is what most people do every day?  How do they manage?   How am I going to get rich?  Surely, I can’t put up with the indignity of going to work every day for the next few months.   

After about a week or so of thrashing about, however, I usually settle down and even come to enjoy the rhythms of the school year.  But during the first part of the year, I get very little done besides complaining to my girlfriend about how unjust the world is.

That is part of the explanation for my not writing a blog entry recently.   But there is another reason: I have become increasingly less satisfied with my idea of holding the auction for Charlie’s painting at the Brickhouse and have been trying to figure out what to do before writing something.

I have two reasons for my dissatisfaction.  First, planning and holding an event takes an enormous amount of organizational skill.  Now, I do have my ally, Shelly.  And she has been quite helpful in generating ideas.  But as we have been talking about the matter I have realized just how difficult it is to pull off a successful event of the sort we had envisioned. 

The second reason, however, is what really has persuaded me.  If I hold the auction at the Brickhouse, I will lose the potential participation of everyone on the internet including just about everyone who has been reading this blog.  And that strikes me as a very bad move.  Why would I want to limit the number of people who might bid on Charlie’s painting to the few who might show up the night of the auction?  To my mind, that makes very little sense.

So, I have a new plan:  I am going to conduct the auction right here on this blog.  How I am going to do that is still a bit of a mystery to me, since conducting an auction on the internet is as new to me as conducting an auction at a bar.  But the basic idea seems pretty straightforward.  And I even have a new wrinkle.

I will conduct two different types of auction: one will be cumulative; and one will be non-cumulative.  I will explain in my next post what exactly that means and why I want to have two different auctions.  But I will say that I am now as excited about the new two-fold plan as I was about the old plan.  And since I have finally grown accustomed to the cloak of responsibility, I should be able to post my next entry fairly soon.  

ArtWorks945

Yesterday, I visited ArtWorks945 again. This time I brought my camera so that I could take pictures of the art there.

Although I didn’t get to talk to all of the artists, I did talk briefly with some of them.

Here is a little bit about them and their art.

William Pumphrey

Ever since visiting the U.S.S. North Carolina at the age of 13, William has been obsessed with naval history. He has collected what he describes as a library of books devoted to the topic.

William makes remarkably intricate models of World War II ships from garbage he collects on the street.

The model displayed here is called ‘Fukushima’ in honor of the nuclear disaster that recently struck Japan.

Paul Kolbe

Paul paints beautiful landscapes. He has been painting since he was 15.

He shares with his landscapes a self-reflective intensity.

Leroy Philips

Believe it or not, this is Leroy’s first painting.

Although he is quite an accomplished drawer, this is the first time that he put paint on a canvas. I was thrilled to get picture of it.

Christopher Johnson

Christopher didn’t like this hand -- he erased it shortly after I took this picture. But he loves to draw.

Michael and Chris

Michael and Chris sew stuffed animals.

Michael has been sewing animals for eight years now, and Chris has joined Michael in the last four months.

Tatiana

I didn’t get to meet Tatiana, but I had to include at least one of her paintings, since they have such an amazing intensity.

Tatiana has one leg and signs most of her paintings ‘anonymous’.

Many more artists produce art at ArtWorks945 – I was only able to talk to the few that were there when I visited.  The collection of art is, to say the least, inspiring.

ArtWorks945 holds an auction every year.  This year the auction will take place September 10, 5-7 at their gallery at 945 North College Street, Charlotte 28206.  Anyone interested in any of these paintings, or any of the many other paintings, produced by some remarkable artists should be sure to attend.  Without a doubt, it will be time -- and if you purchase a painting, money -- well spent.

An Adversary, An Ally, and a Plan

I ran into Betsy and Dexter at the Brickhouse a few days ago and talked to them about the latest developments with Charlie’s painting. I mentioned that I now had an adversary -- the Appraiser; and they both agreed that if I could only find an ally I would have everything I could possibly want.

I must admit -- I found Betsy and Dexter very persuasive. What more does anyone need in life than an adversary and an ally?

Of course, it is one thing to want an ally and quite another thing to have one. After all, it’s not as if you can just go online and order one.

But once again, the Universe has seen fit to give me what I need.

Remember Dom? Yes, Dom. The artist extraordinaire, the visionary who produced Face With Line Through It, the artist whose work began the Van Gogh Project?

Well, he’s not my ally. But I feel pretty confident that he will be willing to help out however he can. Why? Because even though he’s not my ally, his mom is.

Shelly -- that is Dom’s mom -- works for the Nascar Foundation, which raises money for charity organizations. Yes, believe it or not, Dom’s mom holds fundraisers for a living. And better yet, when I asked Shelly whether she would help me arrange an auction for Charlie’s painting, she couldn’t have been more enthusiastic.

And we have at least the beginning of a plan.

We have gotten as far as figuring out where to hold the auction -- The Brickhouse. Nick, the owner of the Brickhouse, is a very generous man who has held many fundraisers. He also is an avid photographer as well as a patron of the arts. I haven’t yet asked him if he would be willing to hold this particular fundraiser, but I feel very hopeful that he will.

And we have two tentative months: October and February.

That’s about all we have – a place and two tentative plans. But I figure that is good enough for having at least the beginning of a plan.

So I now have an adversary, an ally, and a plan (sort of). If I could just get a little press, I might have a fighting chance against the Appraiser.

Worthless

That’s what she said: Charlie’s painting is worthless.

And who is she?

I wish I could say that she is a two-headed, bile slurping she-beast who lives in a cave beneath Yugoslavia.

But I can’t. Indeed, quite the opposite -- she is a very lovely owner of an art gallery here in town. I am quite fond of taking the twenty-minute walk to her gallery and looking at the paintings hanging on her walls. When I am lucky, she takes time to talk to me about the various artists who have made the paintings and the various techniques that they employ.

And….

She is also a professional art appraiser.

So it seemed entirely reasonable that I should ask her what she thought of Charlie’s painting now that it has been damaged. And though, as I said, she is very lovely, I learned that she is also ruthlessly no nonsense. She asserted the following theses, what I shall now call The Appraiser’s Theses.

Appraiser’s Thesis #1: Charlie’s painting is worthless. (She actually said that the painting is either worthless or seriously diminished in value.)

Appraiser’s Thesis #2: A painting’s worth is determined by a set of rules that more or less track the status of an artist in the ‘art realm’.

Appraiser’s Thesis # 3: When a painting becomes damaged, the damage reduces or eliminates the value of the painting.

Appraiser’s Thesis # 4: Marcel Duchamp’s painting Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even is worth as much as it is because: (i) it was a great painting by a great artist; and (ii) Duchamp rectified the damage that was done to it by putting the broken glass back in its place.

Appraiser’s Thesis #5: The category – art that has been accidentally damaged but thereby improved -- is an inconsequential and hence valueless category.

I must admit that I was initially distressed by the Appraiser’s Theses. After all, they don’t bode well for the auction I want to hold for Falling Down Man. But then, as I walked back to my house, I began to realize that despite asserting such disquieting theses, the owner of the gallery had actually given me an invaluable gift: an adversary.

In every endeavor of any worth, there is always an adversary. Achilles had Hector; Napolean had Wellington; Patton had Rommel.

And now…I have The Appraiser.

Now, let me be clear. I in no way intend the phrase, 'The Appraiser', to refer to the owner of the art gallery with whom I talked, since I really do like her and she was acting in utter good faith when she gave me her opinion about Charlie’s painting.

No, I like to think that ‘The Appraiser’ refers to something like an abstract idea, one that represents a worldview.

At the core of that worldview are the five theses I just articulated. But more important than those theses is what lies at the periphery of the worldview: a collection of allegiances forming a tangled web that ensnares us all.

Here are some of those allegiances:

Money.

Power.

Control.

Reputation.

Success.

In other words, at the periphery of The Appraiser’s worldview are things that Van Gogh lacked. Indeed, he didn’t just lack them. He utterly lacked them.

And somehow that makes me happy: it makes me think that the Appraiser’s worldview is seriously defective. Moreover, it makes me want to give the worldview a name that sounds as defective as the worldview itself. So I will call it:

Appraisery

As I said, I think Appraisery must be false. And I hope that at least some others agree with me, since on Tuesday I visited Arts945. Just as a reminder, Art945 is the art gallery for the homeless to which I will donate the money from the sale of Charlie’s painting. It is an incredible place run by remarkable people. And I am hoping that at least some people who attend the auction will reject Appraisery so that I can raise some money for such a cool organization.

But I have learned that I can do more than hope. I can also tell the Universe what I want.

So, Universe:

I want enough people to reject Appraisery that I will be able to raise a significant amount of money for Arts945 from the sale of Falling Down Man.

I want enough people to reject Appraisery that I will be able to raise a significant amount of money or Arts945 from the sale of Falling Down Man.

I want enough people to reject Appraisery that I will be able to raise a significant amount of money or Arts945 from the sale of Falling Down Man.