Things have been very odd lately...

[msfledermaus]

Yesterday I had a strange discussion with a cow-irker. He's an art collector, and had found some new paintings he wanted to buy...painted by John Wayne Gacy.

Mr. Gacy painted lots of little creepy clown and skull paintings while he was in prison, and sold them. They really aren't any great shakes, any 12 year old kid could have done better--the really creepy thing is he painted extremely realistic skulls with badly-painted clown hats on top. I guess the money is going to various charities, but the whole concept makes me shudder in revulsion. I understand my collector friend--he wants something nobody else has, something shocking and rare, but I personally feel the emotional baggage that something like that carries really isn't worth any money you throw at it, no matter how you try to justify the purchase. One of the charities that gets the money apparently wants nothing to do with this sale--for the understandable reason that they don't want their name linked with someone so awful.

Of course, after I had the conversation, I ended up walking around on of the photo galleries at the Mines...one with photos of rooms where people had been murdered. Cheerful stuff...

Comments

[emschin.livejournal.com]

How many photos are there in the gallery of rooms where people were murdered? Who took them? Why are they on display?

[msfledermaus.livejournal.com]

It's a show about a local photographer who did a lot of forensic work...I'll have to find the link for you. But one of the photos is also local, from someone I met at a group show I was in. She was murdered by her husband about two months after we installed artwork together.

*shudder*

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

That's weird. I'm not sure I would want those associations on ready display in my living space, no matter how well done they were, or how cool they looked.

But then again, a lot of artists are extreme assholes, and still I love their work and think it stands alone, apart from the person's personality and doings. So I'm really not sure where to draw that line.

[msfledermaus.livejournal.com]

It's a weird line that changes with everybody, and sometimes that line is really, really blurred. But for me that line stops sharply when someone else has been made to suffer. It's why I'm not a fan of Larry Rivers, and I'm quietly appalled at my collector friend. (He really likes to make and collect shocking stuff, though--He can be quite funny about it, in a sick kind of way.)

[sageincave.livejournal.com]

I think I could find something better to collect {shudder}.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend.