An artist who was commissioned to install a mosaic work of art in front of the Livermore library unveiled a bunch of misspelled names of famous/historical people.

At first, she was willing to come back and fix the errors but wanted another $6,000 (on top of the $40,000 she was paid for the work). But now, because she claims to have received "hate" emails, she's refusing to fix these embarrassing and egregious spelling errors (OK, I'll give her "Van Gough" because I've caught myself putting that "u" in every once in a while, but "Eistein"? Come on!).

From the article:
"Alquilar explained that it took her a lot of time and money to create the work, a brightly colored 16-foot-wide circle made up of individual tiles depicting the names and images of famous people in world history."

As an artist myself, I take a fair bit of offense to this whole thing. She seems to complain that she had to spend money to create her artwork...well, sunshine, most artists DO spend their own money to create their art! I sure as hell don't get to buy camera equipment or film or paint or canvas with Someone Else's money!

Second, she was commissioned to do an art installation and as a professional, she should have the pride to stand behind her work and fix such egregious spelling mistakes AT HER OWN EXPENSE. "Artistic License" does not extend to misspelling the names of historical figures in a rather large and obvious installation OUTSIDE OF A LIBRARY!

I really hope that her refusal to return to Livermore to do a "make good" is down to an understandably bruised ego and the glare of the spotlight and that, once the hubbub dies back, she'll reconsider her decision. Because, ultimately, this will reflect very negatively on her.