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Can you find the words the artist spelled wrong?
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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: January 14, 2007
Latest Update: January 14, 2007
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Why It's So Important to Use a Spell CheckerMaybe you have a friend or relative who can serve as your spell checker. Or maybe you're stuck with using the computer spell checker. We all make mistakes sometimes. Even really good spellers. So let me tell you a story about why you want to spell it right if it's going to go to strangers.
Once there was an artist who didn't have really important connections. But he was talented and worked hard. He showed his work and tried to make a name for himself. That's hard to do if you're not rich or an actor or a politician.
One day he saw a work that looked a lot like his. He was furious. This work was getting lots of attention, and people were saying it was the work of another artist. "Wait," he thought, "that's my idea. She can't just take it." Outraged, he wrote a letter to the gallery owner to stop this theft of his art:
Well, plagiarisim is an issue for artists after all. While writers have some recourse, other artists, like sculptures and painters do not, unless the copied work[s] are "reproductions" produced by photographic means. Plagiarism: "to present the ideas or works of another as one's own". The 1973 Neo-Ab.Ex. painting " . . . On My Window", [was] maybe thought [of] as a contemporary answere to Marcel Duchamps' "'window'" with polished black leather pains. It eludes to thoughts and ideas which have evolved beyond those of Duchamp. On the other-hand the painting and series of paintings [of] which it's a part, that made use of wooden window frames with pains of glass and stretched canvas, seem to have inspired a lot of insidious and vapid amatures to produce ridiculous and ludicrous works; window frames with quaint little seanes of cute bunnies and birdies, etc., painted on . . . framed glass or mirror. Obviously not plagiaristic . . . because the serious painterly thoughts and ideas presented in the painting " . . . On My Window" [were not grasped by] the feeble minds of amatures. . . . In all honesty,, I don't know which is more disturbing, such . . . attempts to plagiarize, or an artist successfully doing so as in the case of Robert Morris' use of my specific thoughts and ideas for the "Firestorm Series" which he explicitly fallowed. So what recourse do we sculptors and painters, etc., have? Only . . . to be outspoken and extole our own work. And, remimber while a technician may be able [to] copy things relating to one's work that dose not mean they understand it, can dicern where it comes from and discuss it [in] any real depth. Sincerely, the artist. XXX
Now, if you just read this, it sounds OK, since I've corrected the grammatical errors and most of the incomplete sentences, leaving only the spelling mistakes. Read it out loud and listen to it. If a student read this in class, and you weren't paying too much attention, it would at least sound like he knew what he was talking about, wouldn't it? Lots of big words are sprinkled throughout it. Words like alludes, recourse, plagiarism, amateurs, painterly, discern.
Maybe you aren't sure of the meaning of some of those words. Maybe you would have mis-spelled them, too. But they sound impressive. Unfortunately, the spelling errors, and the grammatical errors (indicated by brackets], weaken the underlying claim that a famous older artist like Robert Morris actually used this artist's ideas, without recognizing that borrowing.
In other words, mis-spelling invites prejudice. If you mis-spell some of us assume you don't know what you are talking about. That isn't necessarily true. Some of us are just bad spellers. But if you want to claim that someone took your ideas unfairly, then it would be a good idea to run your comments through a spell checker and a grammar checker before you put them where strangers like me are likely to see them.
Consider the people you know. Do you think that you have the prejudice of considering bad spellers not as likely to be good artists?
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