Robbie Conal: The Statement of an Artist

Re “Taking a Pasting” (Nov. 19): While attending the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1986 with several friends who had works in the museum, we noticed posters plastered all around the Temporary.

The next evening I returned home to find the garage door open behind my apartment, and there were the paintings and Robbie Conal projecting an image on a canvas.

This began a friendship that has lasted since. I have been privileged to watch his rise to prominence first in the mass media and finally within the art community. I am an advertising photographer and produce the photography required for his work.

Having a behind-the-scenes view of his projects, I am saddened at the shortsightedness and lack of respect Clay Walker and Patrick Crowley have.

How many of us would allow a student filmmaker to invade intimate parts of our lives for two years? It’s easy to criticize with $88,000 in your pocket. And $2,000 for two years’ work? That is less than 5 cents an hour.

Fame is fleeting; the message should last. If one life was saved from “We’re All One Color,” if two gang members laid down their weapons and embraced, I am satisfied. If any other of Conal’s posters, interviews, books or paintings have made one person think about our society, injustice, oppression, misinformation, whether they agree or disagree, it’s been worth it.

ALAN SHAFFER

Venice