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| The other artists asked to
participate never showed, and after a period of time, Mike asked me
to continue with the project. I painted "The Black & White
Corvette Race", "Gray Tanks Morning" "Fishies"
and "Periscope Sea".
During this time Mike moved to New York City. After completing about 1/3 of the entire project, I received a call from the City of Orlando asking me to stop painting the fence. They had proposed a new project for the site using "more appropriate" murals for the fence. When the new project began the new artists started painting, not where I had left off, but where I began, painting over my murals along the railroad tracks and Orang Ave. Several of these artists had been asked to participate in the beginning of the "Tom Sawyer Project", but never showed at the time. I was later told that there was a direct effort to paint over my murals by some artists, which created a division among them and other artists on the project. About 1/2 of my murals were painted out, and only 80% of the project was ever completed. The rest was finished with graffiti. Once some of the artists started painting over my murals an outcry arose among the art community evidenced by the numerous phone calls I received from fellow artists. I was so controversial that I got more attention from that than I would have if my murals had been left in place. How did I feel? I was surprised that fellow artists, that I new personally, would paint on my murals and deface my work. But if it took their jealousy to stimulate our arts community to get off their lazy asses and do something, more power to creativity!" Robin VanArsdol - 1998 |