Friday, August 8, 2008

Starving artist indeed


I was in the North Amherst area at high noon so I did a "drive by" to the auction of artist John Sendelbach's quaint home located next to "The Harp" Irish bar (damn, if I did not already have a home in South Amherst you can't beat that location.)

"Mr. Sendelbach--who previously did public art for Amherst--blames his economic woes on the Amherst 250 Anniversary Celebration Committee, suggesting they led him along and had him do 150 hours of unpaid design development for an art project in town center and then blew him off.

UPDATE: 2:35 PM
So I biked back to get a better picture. When I did the drive by (and did not stop because my young daughter was in the back seat) that stupid car got in the way and blocked the American flag.
UPDATE: 2:45 PM
So I could tell by my sitemeter I suddenly got a bunch of hits from an Ebay discussion site (I'm a former Ebay Powerseller but never used them). Traced the hits and found this from Mr. Sendelbach:

success can be measured on many levels...including successfully squeeking by...the sale went down, a nice couple got it, turns out we share certain circles of friends.

the bank got what they need and probably won't come for more, which is not much...so i am free.

the new owners are being very cool and letting me take my time moving.

forward we go...thank you all for being so kind and generous with your thoughts.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

thank you larry, for being the only person to publicly acknowledge the "design fiasco", as one town elder put it.

i am off to greener pastures, literally, but it won't be far!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA33ZiegLHo

Larry Kelley said...

Good luck to you.

Did the auction bring enough to cover your debt?

Anonymous said...

thanks LK !

covered the mortgage, but there is always other debt...one headache at a time though.

Anonymous said...

in case some of your readers are not familiar with my public art around town, here are some videos

mill canal newt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAcllwnFqoE

crossroads salamander:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qEg4CNSdY8

minuteman crossing (plaza design):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qr5cleghrY

and of course the design development which LK so aptly stated was "blown off" by the 250th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiYD7pkg6UQ

(you need to cut and paste the video addresses into the menu box...)

Tom said...

I am outraged by this news. Someone of Sendelbach's stature should not have been allowed to leave town, especially under these circumsances.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiYD7pkg6UQ


this video looks like this might be the unpaid work sendelbach has refered to as his final straw...

Anonymous said...

saw this today...

http://www.see-my-pictures.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=52514

Anonymous said...

found this today, so far the only official words produced by the town concerning the fiasco.

http://www.amherstma.gov/archives/70/DRB%20memo%2002-05-08.pdf

Anonymous said...

John my heart goes out to you!