2010 - April New Orleans
From first impressions, it seemed wonderful that Ms. Graves introduction to the Corpus Christi Texas Art Group had led to an invitation to place the artifact sculpture on the campus of the University of New Orleans.
The invitation was not simply to facilitate the placement for the side money mentioned, but they also wanted ongoing legal authority. Having told me that usually everything they handle is for sale, and that their possession is nine tenths of the law, and dozens of artists want their favor.
I'm not the artist of this historic artifact. We have wanted a placement in perpetuity.
This "non-profit" group from Texas seemed overanxious when they gave me a 30 day deadline (May 15th) to deliver this 3000 pound work of art 3000 miles without written agreements as to specific location, for how long, maintenance, ownership, plaque wording, and would the cross on the sculpture be okay with the University. It seemed to me that my enthusiasm was misinterpreted, but the experience created a situation that gave further credibility to the mission statement Global Peace Poem #1 "Engagement". It was encouraging to know that a number of people involved with the New Orleans effort were athiests, yet still approved of the project poem that would be included at the placement, along with their names. This was a three person, three day field trip to NOLA and additional caution on my part was called for due to several inappropriate social circumstances that occured after I had donated $10,000 in advance. The combination of these things has created a rethinking where I will try to sell the sculpture on eBay. At the same time, I am still offering it as a donation to www.vibiana.com if they will change the name to Guadalupe.
To sell the gates, we placed a Craigslist ad for tech and sales support for the eBay sale which, by coincidence, walked us into the Beijing China Peace Concert that posted the poem on their website.
