ARTIST'S REJECTION LETTERS

     My name is not listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "World's Worst Contemporary Artist", but it should be - - - and I have the rejection letters to prove it. In my 16 year span (1989-2005) as a contemporary artist working out of an 8,400 square foot studio/gallery in Boca Raton I produced perhaps 100 large-scale installations that met with world-wide disapproval resulting in my having received over 450 rejection letters from museum directors and curators, art collectors, art critics and gallery owners.

     For some reason I saved all of these negative missives and by happenstance decided to frame them all and build a giant monument to failure. To view a video of this installation plerase click on the link below and then click on the box"Rejection Letters"

First please click on the link below:



This video was taken at my show at the Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Art. Subsequently the installation was shown at another Florida museum and then at a one-man show at O K Harris in New York.

HOW I WASHED UP ON A CARIBBEAN ISLAND AND STAYED 18 YEARS

NO, NOT ME. I DIDN'T WASH UP ANYWHERE.

THIS IS THE STORY ALETTE SIMMONS-JIMENEZ JUST SENT ME AFTER I ASKED HER TO WRITE ABOUT HER LIFE'S EXPERIENCES AS A BACKDROP FOR THE ARTICLE I PUBLISHED ABOUT HER ART ON 11/12/12

I was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the third of four children, descendants of Austrian, Polish, German and English ancestors.  My dad was an Air Force pilot and my mom a former aspiring actress.  He was from Boston and my mother liked to boast that she was from Chicago having escaped Evansville, Indiana, at eighteen by stealing the family car.  From Wisconsin we were sent to Italy, Germany, then back to the States and North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, and then to Portugal and back again to Tampa, Florida.  My mother gave up dreams of the stage and settled in as the resident artist and interior designer for the duration.  She did quite well, and as a bonus, enriched all her children with her creative talent and a lifetime of exposure to the many finer cultural pursuits to be had in the varied destinations.  I'll also add that my dad was an unassuming photographer and wood turner of considerable skill.   My siblings and I came to realize how much he also influenced us creatively, but much later in my life.  

So throw all these ingredients in the soup and what you get is "me".  I love to fly, can't get enough of the wind in my hair, and am constantly attracted to strange places and new faces.  I performed on a school dance team, and excelled at anything creative.   As a young adult I had a great desire to act, but my natural reaction to being in front of a crowd was regretfully not inherited from my mom.  I shook uncontrollably at my first audition.  I took my father's advice "Don't go into acting. You'll never make a living".  Although going into art making would never pay the rent either.  As it ends up I am an artist, designer, wife, and mother.

In college I met a guy that was different.  He had a strange accent, listened to music that I had never heard before, loved anything creative, and had lots of stories of the mysterious land across the ocean that he called home.  We fell in love, and after earning our degrees, I felt that old need to "Get out of Dodge".   We got married, packed our bags and headed to his homeland, the Dominican Republic.   

Living abroad as an adult was exciting and challenging.  As an Air Force Brat I knew the score but everything was different this time.  There was no PX or military Post Exchange or commissaries for me - no prepackaged community of American friends - no US approved doctors or sanctioned hospitals to visit.  Here, I was adopted by my Dominican family and my husband's friends.  I had not attended any US Foreign Service crash language, or local culture, courses.  I could only say "Hola" and a couple of swear words I picked up along the way.  There was no quality television, nothing in English, and certainly no cable TV.  I had rarely, if ever, watched "Kojak" and watching it in Spanish was a painful comedy.   Most of our circle spoke English but after five minutes they forgot.   Parties weren't much fun since I spent my time watching everyone laugh out loud at jokes and stories I couldn't begin to understand.  I fell back on a skill learned in childhood, adapt or be shunned.  I was fluent in Spanish in six months.  

At twenty-four I had a live-in cook and housekeeper.  Yes, there were perks to be had.  She was the one who taught me Spanish.  Everything was pulled one by one from the frig and I would ask one phrase I had learned: "Que es esto?" ("What's this?") and she would politely respond with the correct word.  She grew up on a farm in the center of the island and spoke with their customary dialect.   After a while I really confused everyone.  Here was this "Gringa" that spoke Spanish like a farmer from the heartland.  

My living room window view over a public park - sort of like Central Park.

Without the US News or any Internet, I found myself reading more than ever trying to keep up with happenings at home.  Time Magazine was my best friend.   In a third world country with a small upper class you experience the goings-on up close and very personal.  I gained a close perspective of how politics works.  It was similar to what living in DC and having family in politics must be like.  There were always conversations about an uncle here, or a cousin there, that was at dinner with the President last night.  

My new family was humble yet very well respected in the community.  Friends and family were usually very willing to help an emerging artist develop a career.   People in general were always very impressed by artists and I always felt tremendous public support.   But as typical within Latin cultures, as a woman and an American, I did feel it was much harder for me to prove myself.  In the local art scene I definitely could perceive that people thought I was too lucky.   For them, to be a blond, blue-eyed American, I had it too easy. 

My favorite of my many artist studios - this one in the old part of town

       I was really taken aback when I was awarded a 1st Prize for Video in the prestigious Biennial at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo.  I received my award on stage to thunderous applause.  I expected hardly anyone would clap for me, and though it probably was not really "thunderous" I was shocked at how loud it seemed.   At any rate, a foreigner is just that, and although I was forever considered an outsider, the position was one I was very accustomed to and seemingly comfortable performing.  I fell in love with the place and stayed for eighteen years.  

   It was idyllic back then.  We lived for weekends at the beaches.  We ate fresh oysters with a squirt of lime juice five minutes out of the water; or a fresh fried fish, cooked under the shade of a palm tree 50 feet away and brought to you as you sunned on your beach towel. 
 But then there were the hurricanes.  Oh yes, when David (a category 5 there) was scheduled to roll through I thought it would be just another interesting story to tell.   After that experience, the stories are told with awe and the greatest respect for nature.  We lost all power and water for three months.  If you hadn't left town before it came, you were literally in for a rough ride, and there was no emergency crew coming. 

     My parents never returned to visit the places where they lived.  They spoke about going all the time, but it never happened.  I do know that traveling to foreign places is very different when no one is watching your back.   And probably, as they got older, they felt that old adage "You can never go back".  Going back does kill the dream memories you have invented.   When I first arrived in the Dominican Republic life was very different from how it is today.  

Downtown Santo Domingo around 1980

 But for me going back is easier.  Our children were born there, we have family there, and we visit often.   It's true you can't go "back", but you can view returning as new adventure, to a new place, where you might even bump into an old friend.  And if you're lucky, it may even confirm the choice you made to "move on" as the right one. 

A Mountain Valley in the center of the country .

Alette Simmons-Jimenez

Miami, FL

www.alettesimmonsjimenez.com

PRO BONO DIVES

Just in case your Latin is a bit rusty I’ll give you a hint. “Pro bono publico” means ‘for the public good’. “Pro Bon Dives” is a Latin expression I coined for this Blog to mean ‘for the good of the rich’, which is an apt title for this story.

My pro bono experiences date back to my college days when I spent several afternoons a week at a church in an underprivileged area teaching basketball to a group of youngsters. I don’t know if any of them made it to the NBA, and in case any of them did and happen to read this Blog I’d like to hear from them. Maybe they can get me a few tickets to a game.

I also spent a summer working at a church in Harlem helping out with a variety of tasks for residents of the area.

     I also spent a summer as an intern at a Home for Delinquent Children located in Hawthorn NY. There weren't any gates on the property and one of the young girls ran away and called me to meet her in Times Square. I can't remember if I was able to talk her into returning to the Home. I hope so.

When I was in my 40’s I started up an afternoon “Homework Help” program for youngsters located in a Housing Development in lower Manhattan. I hooked up with students at nearby Pace College who worked with the children several days a week.

One of my pro bono efforts ended on a bittersweet note because the Hamilton Madison House Credit Union that I established in the Housing Development was successful in getting people to deposit their savings with us but not too many of the people to whom the Credit Union made loans repaid them - - - and the Credit Union went bankrupt. I invented “sub-prime” loans and Uncle Sam had to make up the difference

IVAN LENDL LOSES EXHIBITION MATCH TO AARON KRICKSTEIN

Tuesday, February 12, 2013. Fifty-two and 11/12ths year old Ivan Lendl arrived in Boca Raton with his tennis game rusty and his physique out-of-shape but with a marvelous sense of humor, a radiant joie de vivre and every now and then with traces of his elegant shot-making ability that once propelled him to an extended period as a dominant figure in the world of tennis.

     Ivan huffed and puffed his way to a one set loss to Aaron Krickstein, a younger and fitter athlete who spends hours on the courts each day teaching tennis - - - and who was at the top of his game. It was a good natured exhibition with play interrupted with good-natured ribbing by the players and the announcer, but I’m sure Aaron relished this victory after all the beatings he's taken  from Lendl in tournament play.

Ivan was asked why he was always stone-faced when the TV cameras focused on him time and time again at the past Wimbledon, while he was watching his pupil Andrew Murray play. Ivan replied that the British press kept asking him why he was so emotionless at the time that his pupil was setting tennis history in Great Britain (Murray became the first male singles British Wimbledon finalist in the open era).  Ivan said he just got 'pissed off' at the repetitious questioning and made up his mind never to smile. 

    He did a lot a smiling and joking at the Boca Raton exhibition and endeared himself to the crowd with his demeanor and his graceful and often powerful strokes.

Lendl, is a Connecticut resident, US citizen and father of five girls, three of whom are members of their colleges’ golf team. Ivan also has become a golfer and it wasn’t clear whether he said he could beat his daughters on the links.                           

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST STAN TEITELBAUM COMMENTS ON DI MAGGIO, TED WILLIAMS AND OTHER SPORTS IMMORTALS

This is a condensed version of a presentation my old friend, Stan Teitelbaum, gave recently to the Society of American Baseball Research in NYC: 

HOW SPORTS WRITERS INFLUENCE THE IMAGE OF MAJOR LEAGUERS; FROM DI MAGGIO, WILLIAMS, AND CAMPANELLA TO ROCKER, MC GWIRE, AND BONDS

“Sportswriters always have had a powerful role in shaping the image of our elite major leaguers, but there has been a gradual and very dramatic shift in the way writers cover sports stories.  The gentlemen's agreement of earlier times in which off the field incidents were not addressed or under reported, has been replaced by a readiness among writers to report about off-the-field moral or illegal transgressions. Scandal is now what drives newspaper sales.

Joe Di Maggio was a master at cultivating his image. He gave the press good sound bites, and they fell in love with him and conveyed this to the hero hungry fans and pumped him up as a super star supreme.  In a best seller biography about Di Maggio, Richard Ben Cramer wrote, "He understood that we would give him anything, if he would always be the hero we required". The anything was unrelenting unconditional love.     
Ted Williams, on the other hand, maintained a defensive indifference to how he was perceived by the writers as well as the fans, which masked his sensitivity to criticism and feeling undervalued, as he had been in his childhood by neglectful parents. As a result he often was lambasted by the press, and he didn't need much assistance in this department, because he was dismissive toward them and engaged in an ongoing feuding relationship with the writers.

In more recent times a sample of media takedowns can be seen in the player-media relationships of John Rocker, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Rocker described how he hated playing in New York, and made disparaging remarks about foreigners, minorities, and gays.  Rocker claimed that he had been misrepresented in the story, and threatened the writer. Nevertheless, he was suspended and fined by MLB and ordered to get a psychological evaluation and sensitivity training.  In defense of Rocker, John Stossel of 20/20 questioned whether Rocker should be punished for his remarks in a country that espouses freedom of speech.  Stossel argued that players who had committed acts of violence, like Jose Canseco hitting his ex-wife, and Charles Barley throwing a man out of a barroom window, were not suspended or forced to have psychological evaluations; so violent speech should not be viewed as more offensive than violent action.

Mark McGwire has become the symbol for the widespread collusion of denial surrounding the use of steroids in MLB.  The writer who exposed him, Steve Wilstein, was vilified, because the media were eager to pump up McGwire as the new home run champion in the feel good story of 1998. Ultimately, McGwire was shot down by the writers in 2006, when his name appeared on the HOF ballot for the first time and he received a flimsy 23.5% of the vote, which I think was payback overkill by the writers who may have been projecting their anger at themselves for having ignored the obvious during the home run circus and functioned as a group of enablers. 

Barry Bonds, the most compelling symbol of the steroids era, was also proficient at alienating the sportswriters who have consistently described him as rude, surly, scornful, contemptuous, and insulting.  Some writers in their zeal to discredit Bonds have overstated his pathology.  Bob Klapisch, a New Jersey sportswriter with a large following has labeled Bonds as a sociopath.  This is a serious misunderstanding and misuse of a psychiatric diagnosis, since the term applies to people who engage in repetitive law breaking activity and violating the rights of others.  In this way Klapisch is encouraging readers to misconstrue his pathology and further darken Bonds's image. 

Stanley H. Teitelbaum has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is the author of several books including, "Athletes Who Indulge Their Dark Side" and "Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols"(See Amazon Books). His books even outsell mine. Stan is a devoted tennis player and his game keeps improving, like a good red wine, with age.

I’VE FINALLY STRUCK IT RICH, THAT IS IF YOU CALL $950,000 RICH

Just when I thought that my ship would never come in I received an E-mail from Mr. Okuson Samuel in Nigeria proclaiming that a bank draft in the sum of $950,000 was awaiting me. I don’t remember meeting a Okuson Samuel and I’ve never been to Nigeria but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. All I have to do is send $190 by Western Union to:     

                                 FEDEX DELIVERY POST

                                 Contact Delivery Manager

                                 Mr. Micheal Kolo

I assume Mr. Kolo is a very high-ranking FEDEX official in Nigeria.

I sent in my money as soon as I received the E-mail because I noticed that this same E-mail was sent to some 400 other people, whose E-mail addresses were included in the notice I received. I E-mailed them not to bother responding because I had already sent in my $190.

In case you do not believe me I’ve attached a copy of the missive from my new friend Okuson Samuel. His English is a little rusty but I couldn’t care less. 

I haven’t received my $950,000 but it should be any day now because my Western Union money order was cashed in Nigeria.  I wonder what color Bentley goes best with my complexion.

Dear: Valuable Customer,

 We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirmable Package that is registered with us for shipping to your residential location. We had thought that your sender gave you our contact Details. It may interest you to know that a letter is also added to Your package.

We understand that the content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth of $950,000.00USD (Nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars), FedEx does not ship money in CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable. The package is registered with Us for mailing by your colleague from United Nations Organization, and Your colleague explained that he is from U.S.A but he is currently In ASIA for a three (3) months Surveying Project as he works with a Consultant firm in MALAYSIA, We are sending you this email because your Package is been registered on a Special Order.

For your information, the VAT & Shipping charges as well as Insurance Fees have been paid by your Colleague before your package was Registered. Note that the payment that is made on the Insurance, Premium & Clearance Certificates, are to certify that the Bank Draft is not a Drug Affiliated Fund (DAF). This will help you avoid any form of query from the Monetary Authority of your country.

Please note that packages are not shipped nor delivered on Saturday, Sunday and on holidays. If your order has been placed on any of these days,Then it may be shipped the following business day.

Kindly complete the below form and send it to the FEDEX DELIVERY POST With the below informations. This is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers.

FULL NAMES:

TELEPHONE:

POSTAL ADDRESS:

SEX:

CITY:

STATE:

OCUPATION:

COUNTRY:

However, you will have to pay a sum of $190.00 USD to the FedEx Delivery Department being full payment for the Security Keeping Fee of the parcel Been registered by your colleague, FedEx Company as stated in our privacy Terms & condition page. You are therefore advised to make the payment of the $190 through western union/money gram to the information below,

Name Of Sender:..................................

Address Of Sender:..............................

Name Of Receiver: MR.OKOSUN SAMUEL

Destination:.... No 12 Creek Road Wuse 11, LAGOS , NIGERIA

Text Question:............................Helper

Text Answer:.................................God

M.T.C.N:.......Make Available After Payment.

FEDEX DELIVERY POST.

Contact Delivery Manager

Mr.Micheal Kolo

Tel: +234-8079-334-412

Fax: +234-8079-334-412

Email: michealkolo222@yahoo.cn