This is the swan's song.
Part One is here. Part Two. Part Three. Part Four.
by Catherine King, with an interlude and conclusion by Jerome du Bois
I'm feeling a lot better now and am getting ready to leave this entire disaster behind me. Therefore I'm going to press on with my narrative and finish it as soon as possible. Then I'm done with it all. I threw away my notes and instructions to myself for reconstructing the unique digital net art that no one will see again. Thousands of hours of my own work-- out with the garbage.
But it's essential that I finish telling my last FairStory. Jerome and I may have been unaware of the 9.0 magnitude quake that took out A Little More Red ("all six investors pulled out at once"-- yeah, sure), but the intuitive tsunamis that were reaching us were big enough to be uncomfortably noticeable. And we started feeling uncomfortable right around the time of the Real Tsunami, which was well before the Bentley Projects Grand Opening, and that was well before Lisa Greve dropped her electronic bomb on me.
The bomb that Lisa Greve dropped on me was disorienting to say the least. She was saving it until what was, for her, the right moment, which was the last thing the Tuesday afternoon following the great Bentley Projects Grand Opening. In other words, when she couldn't keep stringing me on. The e-mail had the feel and sound of a distasteful obligation that the cowardly sender can put off no longer. At the time it hit me, I thought Lisa Greve was an intern or assistant of Glen Lineberry's and not Director of Bentley Projects. Because that's what these two wanted us to believe, remember?
Well I wasn't about to keep stumbling around in a disoriented state. It was essential to get grounded again, to clarify things, to isolate the source of this excruciating numbness. I HAD to write this FairStory in order to start feeling again. In order to start thinking clearly again, it was essential that Jerome and I figure out, as far as we can, what Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve were trying to pull on us.
Come along with me on the last leg of my art career and public presence. I'll encapsulate for you the rest of the Bentley Projects disaster, reveal our message of importance to all humanity, and finally, the teacher in me will leave my successors with a heart-felt word to any who will listen.
Jerome and I had four more meetings around the Bentley Projects conference table over the next dozen or so weeks, interspersed with e-mail exchanges. The e-mails were mostly between Jerome and Glen Lineberry about the philosphical questions surrounding Life, Death, Ghost Photo Art, Americanism, Spiritualism and Economics. And logistical questions concerning the exhibition which we proposed in November 2004 to Bentley Projects (amid all kinds of specific and very exciting encouragement. Shameless encouragement, even if it was meant as mockery).
I agreed to "work with Lisa" on A Little More Red while Jerome and I pushed forward with our agenda with Bentley Projects --exhibition space and, as a necessary precursor to that, representation. Our priorities, as King and du Bois, the artists, were to advance these projects in this order: American Gothic: Explorations in Digital Spiritualism, The Antidote, and Not Only Words.
All three of these projects were very well fleshed-out by us, because we had been working on them for several years. A Little More Red was a sure thing, as soon as I got an inventory package and an FTP account set up. And it was nothing but great big giant GREEN LIGHTS all along, it would seem, for anything and everything that Jerome and I wanted to propose.
********
This is Jerome, here to describe the three projects we proposed to Bentley Projects, while Catherine takes a break.
The major installation we proposed was for December 2005 and was called American Gothic: Explorations in Digital Spiritualism. It grew out of an existential predicament Catherine and I found ourselves in: orbs and other anomalies which persistently and, it seemed, insistently kept appearing in our ordinary interior and exterior digital photographs. Though both Catherine and I were no strangers to the paranormal, we were not looking for this kind of thing at the time.
But we adapted. We took over five thousand photographs. We studied, analyzed, speculated, sifted, and collated. We were artists. If the orbs appeared to us, we would make art out of them. So we cut, pasted, printed, collaged. We assembled a show of collages and other works, and presented them as "Ghost Photo Art," on July 4, 2003, at our gallery on Indian School Road, Art For Our Times. Nobody came.
American Gothic was a refinement of that earlier installation. Read the title. We emphasize every aspect, the American, the Gothic, the Digital, and the Spiritualism (an American invention). As for the Explorations --we were going to have EVPs playing, video loops of uncanny phenomena, and 12 large and extra-large digital photocollages of orbs and anomalies, of the kind you see on our banner all the time. (We're up to 28 in that archive by now.)
We do not doubt the existence of the uncanny, of shifting and shuddering dimensions, or the incomplete world. Catherine saw a giant orb in the corner of a living room when she was twelve, for example. And I . . . well, I spilled a lot to Glen and Lisa; ask them. Or Ernie the Toad; he knows some.
Both Catherine and I had many encounters with the uncanny. Now, it appears, we were supposed to make art out it.
This was our major proposal to Glen, for December 2005, which I managed to blurt out a rough outline of on our first meeting, as we toured the Projects' generous spaces. (Damn: it would have been beautiful.) The second time we met, we handed over a 17-page outline with images available online to accompany the sections. Days later, Glen responded with nicely detailed questions and concerns. We responded in kind, answering everything, changing a lot, whittling it down to about a fourth of its first ambitious conception (Jesus, we were going to waltz at the opening in formal costume, and light exotic lamps as we went! What were we thinking?!). After that refinement, Glen responded in a positive way, saying that all we had to do was write up the changes and "we're very close to a final outline." Then . . . well, Catherine has that story. I just have this addendum:
We've gotten some truly vicious comments and emails since we started this blog. People have ripped us up one side and down the other, about several topics. But no one --not one-- has attacked us in this vulnerable spot. Nobody talks about the orbs.
Bizarre, innit? If I was my enemy, I would be --I don't know, emailing me mpegs of The Twilight Zone theme, maybe. [Don't event think about it.] Even that shallow geocities idiot mirror site don't say nothing. Man, if there was ever a giant target . . . [Don't get them started.] But there has been near-complete silence (except for Jill at Legacy Matters) about the whole set of phenomena. Mikes yer fink, dunnit? Does me.
The second project we laid on them during the very first meeting, I think. It was a refinement of an idea we conjured up years ago while working at Borders: Words Across Music would have had hundreds of printed horizontal banners weaving their way like a school of fish across the ceiling of the Music Department. I had been thinking and yakking about this new refinement with Catherine for several months already, so I had the riff down cold. It was called The Antidote.
In April of 2004, Camille Paglia published an excellent essay on practical, university-level pedagogy of aesthetics, called "The Magic of Images." In it, she presented some of the images from the history of art which most affected her students. She also pointed out the sometimes-fatal effects of focusing mostly on images, which is why the classroom slide show --words to complement the images, images to complement the words-- was the best means of teaching art. The last sentence of the essay is this: "The only antidote to the magic of images is the magic of words."
The Antidote --go ahead, take it, its yours-- was to be a two-hour giant slide show, using a 15 x 20-foot modular video screen, set up on a special "sports truck" they have for this purpose. Classical music would blare from giant speakers mounted on the truck, in the rear of the Bentley Projects parking lot --the Jupiter Symphony, Brahms, Chopin, and so on-- as hundreds of only beautiful images from the history of art appear on the screen, interspersed with hundreds of aphorisms, some original, appearing in plaintext, culled from a combined eighty years of reading and listening and jotting things down. Hell, we even quote The Guano Apes: "Beat the machine that works in your head."
I outlined this to Glen Lineberry. I told him we would put the slide show together and rent the truck (which could have run $6,000 to $12,000, but we would pony up), if we could use his parking lot for the main show.
For me, the cherry on top was to drive around the Roosevelt Row area, and Grand Avenue, in the supertruck, with giant vinyl announcements on both sides, in the hour before the Friday 2005 Art Detour began, in early March. Using a loudspeaker, I would encourage and exhort the gathering crowds to come on down to Bentley Projects for an "antidote" to the experience they were even now heading into. Over and over. Stuff like that. And then, when they got down there: glorious.
Glen said, in so many words, that he dug it. My ass.
The third proposal grew out of an email exhortation from Glen about our Phoenix Art Museum project, The Collective I. Recall that at our first meeting he told us that things don't get done because people don't ask. In this email, he put it even more succinctly: "balls to the wall." So I took him up on it and pitched an exhibition of my word paintings and collages. Stuff like The Oracle Board, The Twin, Iscillation, Suspect All Slogans, and Everyverbeverreverberates.
[Aside: I remember when I showed my portfolio to Kimber Lannning, oh, so long ago. When I came to pick it up and get her response, she handed it over without comment except to say she'd had to think about it. She was the third or fourth so-called professional I had submitted the proposal to, and they all responded the same way: silence.
This time, though, that wasn't good enough. So I shared that with her, and told her I'd like to hear what she had to say, specifically, about my work. I'm glad I asked.
She said, "I like the design, and the colors -- but the words get in the way. [!] I feel like I'm being lectured to."
As I said, I'm glad I asked. The design, the colors --they're just the pretty package for the ideas in the words, a pleasing way to present complexity.
And that's why we decided not to have anything more to do with Kimber Lanning. Anybody who's scared of words, of ideas, is a stunted person.
Some local art people might know the work I'm talking about. Much of it hung for one night in the Amsterdam bar on its very first First Friday a couple of years ago. Then it spent a month at the Lucky Dragon in Tempe. A few months laters, I hung most of it at the Paisley Violin, in the heart of Roosevelt Row. In each of these venues, not one person said one thing about one single piece of my work. Maybe words do scare people nowadays.]
So --balls to the wall-- I asked Glen for an exhibition of my Not Only Words series, including some serious new work --neon (in edition), lightbox (in edition), a wooden sculpture-- to be commissioned.
When he finally got back to me after we pressed him for his decision on our three projects, he vaguely endorsed the ghost photo art and the video truck --and passed in complete silence over eight years of my work. That was cold. Maybe words scare him, too.
********
I spent the next few weeks getting 36 flower photographs assembled and burned onto discs for Lisa Greve and John Dowd, the Bentley Projects photographer. Then Jerome and I went back down there to see and hear how the images were working out. I'm talking about about every arrangement you see listed under Rays of Flower on the sidebar, up to and including "Big Bonfire."
Now, I was going to be arranging and photographing flowers even if I had never heard from Glen Lineberry or Lisa Greve. That was another reason why I thought no harm could be done if I made some money at it through A Little More Red. But the flowers are my therapy, the Green Beings are my friends. The arrangements represent pieces of time in my life.
The arrangements are very personal to me. Each takes its own natural time. I create them one at a time, and that's how Jerome and I enjoy them. They get to live until they're ready to die, so I make about three a week. I guess I sort of feel the arrangements are like children of mine and I'm proud of them even though to me they're not real art, not like the other projects we were discussing with Glen Lineberry.
What the arrangements, up to and including "Big Bonfire," represented to me was three months of deep therapy. That's a big investment of time and effort.
This time it's me and Jerome and Lisa Greve and John Dowd sitting around the Bentley Projects conference table, and I'm on pins and needles waiting to hear how the images were working. I had an understanding with Lisa Greve that we wanted the flower photographs printed big, like 28" by 42." When Jerome and I viewed the images at that size on our monitor at home, they were stunning.
But the news at this meeting was really disappointing. John Dowd explained that our camera just couldn't provide the resolution to print the photographs at the large sizes we wanted without some fuzzy degradation. Lisa Greve was open to reducing the sizes of the prints, but I wasn't. So John Dowd talked to Jerome and me about better cameras that he knew would provide professional quality resolution.
Jerome and I made the decision right there in front of them --we would get one of the cameras that John Dowd was recommending, "because clarity is our number one priority, right Jerome?" I assured them. I meant, of course, the clarity of the photo prints, but it could be extended to all of our dealings with other people. How I wish Lisa Greve had figured that one out (she claims she reads our blog --so it should have been obvious). It would have saved everybody so much grief.
Well, what about all of my time and work on my inventory package? Lisa Greve and I agreed that we just wouldn't be using it, except maybe to make some composites of smaller sizes. So basically, it was start all over again, with new arrangements, new photographs --I would build up another inventory. "That's okay," I said to Lisa Greve, "I make about three arrangements a week. I'll go back home and start building up another inventory of images." Thus demonstrating both professionalism and trust.
I had just found out that a lot of my time and effort wasn't going to pay off with the first batch of photographs for A Little More Red. But I couldn't really feel that down because I was so excited about the green light for American Gothic. Of course, I've known forever not to count my chickens before they hatch, but Glen Lineberry was so encouraging and, most importantly, he was Rock Solid Stable. In fact, with Bentley Gallery and now Bentley Projects, the biggest, classiest venue in town backing him, he was the epitome of Stability.
So I could almost allow myself to feel that finally, after all these years (see Dolorous Passion of American Woman), the greatest artistic dream I could ever imagine was about to come true. The Little More Red deal wasn't that important to me, but the near-reality of presenting American Gothic: Explorations in Digital Spiritualism, had me so excited and hopeful that I never considered the possibility that Glen Lineberry, much less Lisa Greve, would be anything but trustworthy. All that posh polish down there at Bentley Projects can be pulled over people's eyes quite effectively.
Did I mention that the contract-like package that I got from A Little More Red states that their artists "start making money almost immediately"? It was already an established business, so I figured that statement was based on the record. Glen Lineberry, who runs Bentley Projects, so probably also A Little More Red, is an economist, so I just have to start from stratch again with the flower pictures, and as soon as I get that second batch FTP'd down to John Dowd, then I too will "start making money almost immediately"(!).
I had supposed the stream of money from A Little More Red would begin flowing before Jerome and I got the "significant cash infusion" for starting to put together American Gothic. Now, what with having to start all over again with a better camera for the flower pictures, it was looking as though the startup stream of money from A Little More Red might coincide with the "substantial cash infusion" to start on American Gothic. We sure were working hard for Bentley Projects, but it was bound to pay off. All of these projects were imminently imminent. It was almost too good to be true. Bentley Projects was the biggest, classiest, most stable art venue in the whole Valley!
The way that Glen Lineberry accepted the idea of The Antidote, right on the spot, was a little, well, unbelieveable. Jerome had barely finished describing the idea when Glen Lineberry gave it the clear verbal go-ahead. Of course, we were going to be footing the bill, but the production would be inside Bentley Projects. I have never seen any proposal accepted in such an easy manner.
That happened at our first meeting, too, as I remember; that's another reason why it was almost unbelievable. I mean for somebody to just say, "Sure, go ahead, I don't see why not." And then, as I remember, he turned to Lisa Greve, and she indicated that she liked the idea, too. Liked it, or, as Director of Bentley Projects, approved it? Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve were shady from the beginning with us, and that's the real reason that Jerome and I won't be working with them.
I remember noticing some slightly unsettling behavior on the part of John Dowd when Jerome and I went down to Bentley Projects to drop off the American Gothic proposal. I had the new camera with me and said a few words to him about it. This was the second time I'd seen this guy and the way he was looking at me was like he'd never seen me before. Or no --like he'd never seen anything like me before; or, no, as I told Jerome ". . . like he was in awe of me or something . . . no . . ." What was it?
He was probably being incredulous --thinking to himself, "I'm standing here talking to her about A Little More Red she thinks, and she doesn't even know it's going under." (Or maybe it already had gone under.) "I see she even bought that expensive new camera. When are they going to tell her?" That would explain the look. Or the look, where he was visually touching every square inch of my face, way beyond staring, could also be about this: "Oh look, I'm deceiving her too, just as Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve asked me to do. This is kind of fun! Let's do this some more."
Anyway, Jerome and I left John Dowd to his work and walked around Bentley Projects for a few minutes before we could meet with Glen Lineberry about American Gothic. His previous appointment was running late. We had two identical proposal packages with us --one for Glen Lineberry and the other for whomever he should choose.
We wondered --was it Bentley Dillard? We never knew who was to receive our proposal, how long it would take to be reviewed, what was the process. Not a good way to go into a venture. Did it always work this way when proposing art exhibitions and installations? I didn't worry about these questions as I would have in my former business dealings because, as we all perceive, BENTLEY PROJECTS IS SO ROCK SOLID STABLE!
Glen Lineberry finished with his appointment and came out to greet us. As he led Jerome and me back to the conference table, Lisa Greve joined us. So we gave the first proposal package to Glen Lineberry and the second to Lisa Greve. Not that Lisa Greve was revealed as the Projects' director at this point. I supposed that Glen Lineberry was just being very forthcoming with his assistant, so that he wouldn't have to later relate the proceedings to her second-hand.
Something else at this meeting seemed slightly incongruous. As we finished and were heading out front, Lisa Greve said to me, as an aside, "I've been meaning to tell you how much I enjoy your flower pictures." I thought, "Yes, Lisa, I know. You were gushing so about them at our first meeting. But we're beyond just liking, we're doing business about them now, remember?" It seemed like an odd distancing, when she knew full well that I was very busy at home working on my second batch of inventory with the new camera. It sounded like she was backing things up a few paces.
Jerome and I went home and continued with art plans. He communicated a fair amount with Glen Lineberry about the specifics of American Gothic. It had been a couple weeks since Glen Lineberry had e-mailed us that:
Wed, 08 Dec
Subject: American Gothic
From: Glen Lineberry
I am intrigued by your proposal, and can see at least significant parts of
it working. I need first to disclose some biases, then ask some specific
questions, and then pose some general issues.
He sure did get specific:
Questions Specific to Synopsis:
1. Suggest you take a look at William Least Heat Moon's "Columbus in the
Americas", a curious little book in which my old English professor takes
apart both sides of the colonial myth.
2. In Item 2, what do you mean when you say that the dead "have evolved"?
Does this mean that some dead survive, but that others are less fit? Does it
mean that they continue to develop after they're dead? Does it mean that the
meaning of being dead has changed over time?
6. It Item 4b, it almost sounds as though you're defining our sort of
"native" Americans as a separate ethnic group. This makes a great deal of
sense to me, but it's not a position often taken publicly, and I'm curious
as to how you'll either state it, or elide the issue.
General Thoughts:
1. Viewers are going to ask, "Is this for real? Do they really believe the
dead are wandering?" How do you intend to convey your seriousness to the
casual viewer? Perhaps more interesting, how do you intend to convey your
seriousness to the "sophisticated" art viewer, who expects irony and may be
ill-equipped to deal with directness?
I remember wondering at the time, "Do other artists have to philosophically justify their bodies of work to their art dealers?" For example, Did Glen Lineberry initially have to grill Angela Ellsworth about whether she was being sincere when she pissed all over herself. Or did he ever say, "You know Angela, some people are just going to think you've jumped the shark when you start thrashing around like that. How are you going to answer them, Angela?"
Now I'm remembering, at the first meeting again, Glen Lineberry talking about some early performance thing by Angela Ellsworth and some other people. They were rollerskating around and around with lights on their heads, and this really impressed Glen Lineberry. As her art dealer, did he ask her to answer 10.5.a.1. questions about it? Then why do Jerome and I have to jump through these hoops of justification when we're the only ones being serious? Because it's fun for Glen Lineberry to watch? If that turns out to be the case, he will find that his entertainment cost him dearly. He's not a very good economist, I think.
We were going to invite Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve, and John Dowd if they wanted, to come to our house and watch us capture and download orbs real time before their very eyes. Just so they would feel comfortable about the authenticity of our paranormal photography, because I know what an important thing professional trust is.
All the while, it was okay with Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve, and maybe John Dowd to keep us in the dark. Lisa Greve later made this excuse for her deceitful behavior:
"You intimidate me a little (I read the blog and know who you are, as you say), and notifying you about Red, as ownership was sorting it out and we
were asked to sit tight, bothered me constantly."
The guilty conscience didn't stop you from leading me on though, did it Lisa?
Fri, 17 Dec
From: Lisa Greve
Good morning, Catherine and Jerome.
I loved reading your proposal and response to Glen's email. You've both had
such rich and varied pasts. I grew up in rural Minnesota, where lacing ones
shoelaces a new way was cause for parental concern.
Please keep January 8 open for our Grand Opening gala (invite is on the
way). It will be a good opportunity for you to meet our collectors and the
rest of the Bentley staff.
Best,
Lisa
She loved reading our proposal but she still doesn't tell us that she's the Director of Bentley Projects. How is she going to introduce us to their "collectors and the
rest of the Bentley staff" without revealing that? Here's a hint: we already know she's a coward, right? Why change her stripes?
Sat, 18 Dec
From: Glen Lineberry
As you have the time over the holidays, and without putting in too many
hours, please adjust the proposal narrative to reflect the changes you've
already settled on, and I suspect we'll be very close to a final outline.
On a separate note, invitations have just gone out for the grand opening at
Projects for Saturday 8 January, 7-10; I hope you'll be joining us.
If we don't speak beforehand, have a Merry Christmas.
Best,
Glen
A couple of days before the great Bentley Projects Grand Opening I finally got my second inventory package ready for Lisa Greve. There were 18 new arrangements with 22 images. I was excited and proud to have arranged and displayed so much beauty, and as I already mentioned, this now represented about five months of my deep therapy. How could so much goodness and beauty bring anything but joy?
Jerome and I set up the FTP account account and I e-mailed Lisa Greve clearly stating that A Little More Red now had everything they needed from me (so that I could "start making money almost immediately!"). Jerome knows how happy I was that day --seeing all my beautiful flower work all together in one place, as I e-mailed Lisa Greve, ". . . and tied up with a metaphorical red bow." I sent copies of the e-mail to John Dowd and Glen Lineberry. It was a few days before the great Grand Opening of Bentley Projects.
Jerome and I were ready with the final proposal of American Gothic. He wanted to submit it, but I asked him to hold off until I heard back from Lisa Greve or John Dowd about the FTP and second batch of images. I felt that that was the correct order of dealing with the outstanding business. As I told Lisa in my e-mail of January 6, I was ready to "start rocking and rolling" with the flower pictures and A Little More Red.
I was a little off-balance at the great Grand Opening of Bentley Projects, because we hadn't yet heard back from Lisa Greve or John Dowd about A Little More Red and the FTP account. I never felt that the American Gothic proposal was in jeopardy, because Glen Lineberry had said we were "very close to a final outline." However, to be precise, if we had to talk to anyone at the Opening about our work with Bentley Projects, we would have to say it was all tentative at that point.
In retrospect, that's how they wanted it. Glen Lineberry was going to use all that to his advantage. Remember people, I believed that these people had integrity at this point. Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve, Jerome and I assumed, were completely on the up and up, just like we were.
Lisa Greve was at the door of Bentley Projects, acting like a hostess, on the night of the Grand Opening. I still didn't realize she was the director of the place. Now when I think about how it felt as though she was ditching us the whole time we were there, it's because she WAS ditching us the whole time we were there. See, this was how she chose to avoid introducing Jerome and me to their "collectors and the rest of the Bentley staff." If you've ever been ditched, you know how humiliating it can feel. Thanks a lot, Lisa. We didn't deserve that. We didn't deserve any of this. I wish I had never met you and your brown nose!
We strolled through all the galleries of Bentley Projects and ended up in front of a couple pieces by Dominique Blain that especially bothered me. The first was the $20,000 undershirt with medals. I just couldn't get past it. I knew that the Bentley Projects people were really excited about this bland Canadian. Anything she makes could easily have been made by someone else. I started to feel a powerful professional resentment welling up inside of me.
I knew that Glen Lineberry, Master Economist and Business Genius, came up with this pricetag for yes, you heard me right, an undershirt with medals. But one can buy a Galliano for $20,000 --can't they, Dennita? What was going on here? I wondered how Glen Lineberry would price just the hem of my Psychedelic Leprechaun. Not really. I just knew that he thought that Canadian's lame copycat conceptualizing was worth far more than anything by American Woman.
Then Jerome and I looked at the Canadian's piece with all the army boots. He told me that this is the third time the artist has constructed the same work. All those boots only magnify the solelessness of this stupidly overblown arrangement. Oh yeah, and where's the challenge? Her interns must be able to set this one up with their eyes closed by now. But Glen Lineberry finds it exciting.
So I started feeling sensitive about his value system, because I was going to ask him how to price Roomfull of Phantoms, which was going to be part of American Gothic. Just read what I went through to make that piece. I had a feeling Glen Lineberry valued the Canadian's played out clichés more than my unique and hard-lived art. I wondered how big was her "substantial cash infusion." I just couldn't shake the dissed feeling.
Late that night, after we got home from the Grand Opening, somebody, it must have been American Woman, asked Jerome to repost Shine A Light: The Flashlight Gallery. I think I know where she was coming from. She probably wanted Glen Lineberry to know that she demands equality in her business dealings. I stand behind her 100%. She felt she needed acknowledgement from Bentley Projects about the unique character and value of the work by King and du Bois.
I wrote Shine A Light: The Flashlight Gallery over a year ago, but American Woman wanted it reposted so that Glen Lineberry would be sure to read it. She felt it necessary to sort of notify Bentley Projects. Her instinct told her it was time. If Jerome and I, her greatest allies, hadn't forced the issue and insisted upon clarification from Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve, no doubt they would have jerked us around even longer. Because that's what Glen Lineberry likes to do, and that's okay with Lisa Greve. Let's reread that email.
Fri, 17 Dec
From: Lisa Greve
Good morning, Catherine and Jerome.
I loved reading your proposal and response to Glen's email. You've both had
such rich and varied pasts. I grew up in rural Minnesota, where lacing ones
shoelaces a new way was cause for parental concern.
Please keep January 8 open for our Grand Opening gala (invite is on the
way). It will be a good opportunity for you to meet our collectors and the
rest of the Bentley staff.
Best,
Lisa
And then, at the very last moment of the second business day after the great Bentley Projects Grand Opening-- Lisa Greve dropped the bomb on me:
Tues. Jan 11
Jerome and Catherine,
I apologize for the delay in getting back with you regarding A Little More
Red. Just recently difficult decisions have been made about the business.
It's no excuse, but getting ready for the grand opening at Projects put
everything else on hold.
When we began A Little More Red, our goal was to provide architects and
design professionals with access to a wide range of quality artwork,
conveniently organized, fairly priced and rapidly shipped.
While hundreds of artists have listed their works with us, and several
thousand architects and designers have joined as members, this has not been
enough to overcome a basic problem we encountered. There is still a
substantial disconnect between the internet's ease of use, and the way art
is purchased for many design projects in the real world.
As it appears to us that it could be at least another two or three years
before we can even start to bridge this gap between expectations and real
world acceptance, we have reluctantly decided to close the business.
We are considering ways to fold Red's plan into Bentley, but are bound by
other agreements that have to find closure before we could proceed. In the
interim, we'd like to have access to your (Catherine) images for Bentley's
local designer projects, if you have an interest.
Catherine, are you available to meet in the next week or so?
Best,
Lisa
As I read these words, I suffered the hardest, cruelest hit of my long, dolorous professional career. It was never about the flowers, it was about our exhibitions and installations at Bentley Projects, but how could I possibly trust Bentley Projects when their three-year-old sure thing just folded? If there was no more A Little More Red, then Jerome and I were back to square one with everything else we were proposing to Bentley Projects, the real, important stuff. We were back to square one, yes, but the trust was no longer there.
The moment I began to read Lisa Greve's cowardly words, a chilling numbness enveloped my head and body. I knew our hopes and dreams were dashed. Everything --everything came crashing down. So that was it --we were being had for months by the biggest, most stable game in town. It was just like the bad old days --getting jerked around by every little asshole in town. Believe me, people, Jerome and I never would have gone down this pitiful path with Glen Lineberry and Lisa Greve had they not had the blush of purity all over them.
******
This is Jerome with a few concluding notes and questions, and some of our email history with these two, for the record. First, let me say again that we did not initiate a single thing with these people. We were gone from the local scene until this guy sucked us back in --why?
Below, you'll read Lineberry use the phrase "once she's happy with the product from the new camera" after she had already uploaded two dozen images from the new camera "she was happy with" to the FTP sight. Did he even look at them?
A what does a "convenient fit" mean? It means "easy to take advantage of," doesn't it?
This whole disaster makes me sick and angry at the new pain my wife now has to get through. Our public profile was well known before Glen Lineberry came slinking out. We are prickly and distrustful and impatient with hand-waving generalities. And now I'm thinking he wanted to burn our kites from the get-go, the sonofabitch.
Never again. Trust no one.
Here are our last emails after the Bentley Projects opening. For the record.
1/11/05 11AM from Glen Lineberry.
Jerome:
Thank you so much for the Macallan's. What a gracious gesture; I'm beginning
to suspect you have Southern roots. I hope you enjoyed the evening, and am
sorry we had so little time to chat. Good luck in your meeting with Brady.
Glen
1/11/05 3PM I wrote back.
Glen:
You are welcome for The Macallan. We had a short but clear meeting with Brady Roberts, who should be getting back to us soon. Speaking of getting back to us -- this is for Lisa, too -- in the immortal words of Marvin Gaye -- "What's Going On?"
Are we going to be working with you people, or not?
Sincerely,
Jerome & Catherine
1/11/05 4:55 PM Glen wrote back.
I'm curious to know what "short but clear" means.
I figure we work together on:
1. Your projection idea for outside, most likely during ArtDetour, if you
can have it together that quickly.
2. I expect we'll both have some minor modifications, and we need to take a
serious look at spaces now that we're done with construction, but I see us
going forward with the installation/exhibition for December.
3. We have some ideas for continuing to present a small number of artists to
AIA and ASID members, in an attempt to entice them more easily into using
online systems, and Catherine's photos, once she's happy with the product
from the new camera, should make a great deal of sense for that.
Glen Lineberry
1/11/05, the same day, at 4PM, Lisa Greve emailed the bomb.
Catherine and Jerome,
The six investors in Red decided to dissolve the company after you bought
the camera and while you were posting images on the ftp site. You think you
were played, but that is not true, and has never ever been an intention.
You intimidate me a little (I read the blog and know who you are, as you
say), and notifying you about Red, as ownership was sorting it out and we
were asked to sit tight, bothered me constantly. That was unprofessional and
I sincerely apologize. I now have to let the other 638 artists know that the
business is closed.
I was not looking to just fit you in, Catherine, I was looking for a
solution. Red had been my job for the past three years and I am trying to
find ways to make certain situations work in the new environment. You are an
artist that we saw a good fit to stay on because you are local (ease of
access) and we thought we could sell your pictures because they are of
quality. I asked to meet next week because my mother is in hospital and I am
not in the gallery much this week.
At the grand opening, all staff was assigned posts for the evening. I didn't
see you after you were at the door, but I text messaged Glen to let him know
you had arrived. because you said you were nervous and I wanted him to
locate you. As I was shifted from room to room during the course of the
evening, I had the opportunity to introduce Bentley artists to many people,
but I never saw you again. I asked after you to other staff and Michael said
he thought you had left.
In closing, I apologize again for both the bad timing of Red's demise and
the manner in which you were notified.
Sincerely,
Lisa
1/11/05, at 4:38 PM, we emailed Lisa.
Lisa,
No, no, no. Catherine says that she is "distinctly disinterested" in meeting with you or allowing you to use her images.
Nobody plays us in any way, Lisa.
Sincerely,
Jerome du Bois
At 5:17 the same day, we emailed Glen.
Glen:
You are as clear as a mudslide in Santa Conchita, CA-- and that's not good.
You are not speaking nearly plainly enough. You have made zero progress in negotiations with King & du Bois. When are you going to start talking about money? And for what, specifically?
Sincerely, Catherine King
That night, after talking it over, we broke it off (7:26 PM):
To Lisa:
We are very disappointed in your lack of professionalism, and your
cowardice. On your urging, we spent $1000 for a new camera. When we
established the ftp site and uploaded the images, we didn't get word
one back from you or John Dowd. And don't give us any crap about
being busy with the opening, all those important people, collectors
you were going to introduce us to. We met no one. Thanks for that.
Look: It doesn't take that much time to keep other, vital, creative
people like us up to date. But you didn't. We obviously didn't matter
that much to you. At the opening, you ignored us. And now you tell us
it was all for nothing but maybe you can fit us in sometime next
week. Oh, sure.
To Glen (from Jerome):
Time to clean the grits out of your mouth, Missouri, and step up. "You figured?" Are we mind readers? So sorry to be so harsh, but really not so sorry, to be honest. You've read the blog, man, you should know who I am by now, that I will not be played with or fucked around with the moment I figure it out, by anyone, no matter how big the player thinks he is. I have walked away from bigger gigs than this, man. I am independent, with no hooks, no dials, no handles. I don't need you. Catherine and I sail above all the shitty stupidities of this town. We have ideas and projects that make your twitty Dominique Blain look like tiddleywinks. You were the one who said "balls to the wall." Time to step up or step out. We have other things to work on than your vaporous promises, and we don't want to waste any more time.
You've read the blog. You should know us by now. So: who are you people, and who do you think you are?
Sincerely,
Jerome du Bois
Catherine King
PS: "Short but clear" means that he was short and I was clear. I ran the meeting. Jeezo, man, I could eat Brady Roberts for breakfast.
At 9:29 that day, Glen emailed.
Good morning.
Our invitation to exhibit in the gallery was extended on the basis of our
respect for the quality and seriousness of your writing, the beauty of the
images, and a healthy regard for the amount of effort that went into your
exhibition proposal. The usual response to such an invitation falls
somewhere between "yes, please" and "no, thank you", either with or without
conditions. Attacks ad homimen are not only non-responsive, but injurious to
the relationships that need to exist among artists, dealers and collectors.
The invitation, of course, is withdrawn.
The only formal announcements yet to be made about A Little More Red's
suspension of activity were made to current consignors, who will need to
find alternate venues for the work that was being held on reserve for us. We
will be re-entering the architect/designer market shortly, on a less
ambitious scale until the blueprint-design software catches up with us, but
will not bother you with that. You were not yet a current consignor when
that email was drafted, because the first images you submitted lacked
sufficient data to produce high-resolution products at the claimed scale.
You will remember that, when we discovered this problem, we did not attack
you, did not question your ability as artists or integrity as
businesspeople, but simply informed you of the issue and suggested a range
of solutions -- produce the images at a small size, scan the images and use
the computer to enlarge them, or use a camera with greater capacity. You
expressed appreciation for our approach at the time.
You purchased the new camera because you wanted to produce images at full
size, and your old camera was incapable of generating high-resolution images
at much more than playing-card size. You bought a good one, and we could
always use one for the other gallery; I'll be happy to buy you out of the
camera, if you're not going to be using it.
If this conflict was inevitable, then I'm glad it occurred sooner rather
than later, but I can't help but think we've all missed an opportunity here.
We wish you well.
Glen Lineberry
At 10:31 that morning, I replied:
You should never have emailed or approached us in any way, you treacherous son of a bitch. We were gone, out of the market, completely burned -- all of which you knew about -- yet you lured us out again and gave us hope. Then you treat us like cheap labor for the freak show. We're crushed again. Thanks a lot. The paranoid in me is convinced that was your intention the whole time. Doesn't matter, the effect is the same.
We wish you ill.
Jerome and Catherine
And finally at 11:45, I emailed again, to both Glen and Lisa
One more thing I want you two to know: Catherine, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder -- the only mental illness [which can be] caused by other people -- is devastated. Thanks again. People have been screwing with Catherine professionally since before you, Lisa, were born. You two, by your behavior, have reopened wounds. I'm telling you this because I want you to suffer, too, though I doubt anything like that will happen.
I wonder what *your* Jesus would think of that, Glen. *My* Jesus thinks you're a goat.
Sincerely,
Jerome du Bois
PS. The legalese in both your emails sounds like you've got fifty pounds of law books shoved up your keisters. (And Catherine's mother is dying, too, Lisa; has been for six months. She lost her father last year. Did that slow her down? No. Grow up.)
And you read it here first.
And now we're going to get back to our lives.
Posted by Jerome at January 26, 2005 04:00 PM | TrackBack