Putting a Price on Grains of Rice

Artist Bret Carr took the rules for street performers on the trendy Third Street Promenade with a grain of salt.

Because of that, Santa Monica has paid Carr $43,000 for nine grains of rice.

City officials authorized the payment to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit by Carr that challenged restrictions against artists selling work along the three-block mall.

Carr worked as a Santa Monica street artist from 1995 to 1997, drawing depictions of passersby’s dreams on grains of rice in exchange for donations.

His minuscule rice sketches often included a few words of text along with images of skiers, hearts and flowers or--in the case of a couple hoping to have a baby--a stork. Each rice grain was suspended in baby oil inside a tiny glass capsule that magnified it.

But Carr was ticketed eight times and arrested once by Santa Monica police for violating city ordinances aimed at controlling the musicians, mimes and others attracted to the popular shopping area and tourist attraction.

His offenses included refusing to display a city permit, working outside approved performance hours and selling without a license.

Carr sued when he decided the police were violating his 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Last month’s payment is the last in a series of settlements reached between the city and artists who for years have tangled over how Promenade performers should be regulated.

Officials, meanwhile, have revised local laws in hopes of keeping everyone happy.

Carr, now a 35-year-old independent filmmaker, is certainly pleased. He plans to use his share of the settlement to pay for additional music for a new movie he has directed.

In fact, he is offering to give back the cash if the city will let him use the Santa Monica Symphony in the soundtrack of the feature-length movie he directed and co-wrote.

He is putting the finishing touches on “Fight the Good Fight,” the story of a struggling boxer who stutters. He hopes to get it screened next year at the Sundance and Slamdance film festivals.

Carr said he started the rice painting at a low point in his life. He had just finished directing a soft-core video featuring topless girls and rock music. “I was broke and tired--frustrated that my career had come to that,” he said.

He purchased a retiring mall rice painter’s pens and equipment for $150 and took up street art.

“The kid was painting names on rice,” Carr said of the departing painter. “He told me he’d made $400 that day. I thought if he does that well with names, what could I do if I painted people’s dreams?”

He used a fine-tipped architect’s pen to write phrases or draw tiny scenes on grains of rice.

“It wasn’t that hard. I have good eyesight and a very steady hand. I don’t drink coffee or smoke cigarettes,” he said.

“I’d ask people what their dream was and would draw it. People would give me what they thought it was worth--some gave $1, some gave $50, others just thanked me.”

Santa Monica officials, meantime, were struggling to find a way to control the sometimes chaotic crush of street performers jamming the busy Promenade. At the time, a strict anti-vending ordinance prohibited artists from selling anything.

As his rice painting grew in popularity and police began noticing money changing hands, they suspected Carr was illegally selling his tiny artworks.

After the eight citations and the trip to the police station, Carr sued.

“They told Bret he couldn’t sell anything other than newspapers on the 3rd Street mall. We said if what you’re selling has no value other than the message it carries, it should be treated the same as a newspaper,” said lawyer James Fosbinder, who took the case.

City leaders were hit by several other performers’ lawsuits at the same time.

Officials agreed that the issue of freedom of speech had turned into a touchy one.

“It was getting overly difficult for everyone, including the police,” said Patrick Brooks, an assistant city attorney. Santa Monica eventually conducted workshops so merchants, street performers and others could help design a new mall ordinance.

Settlements were reached on four other lawsuits, with payments ranging from $15,000 to $26,000.

“Sometimes it takes a court to force a change,” particularly when local elected leaders are caught between competing groups such as merchants and street artists, said Carol Sobel, a former ACLU lawyer who handled the other four cases--including one involving the sale of political bumper stickers.

New rules enacted four months ago allow artists with permits to sell their own paintings, music recordings and balloon sculptures to Promenade passersby.

The new regulations also require entertainers and vendors to stay 40 feet apart and pack up and move 120 feet every two hours.

Although the rotation requirement has irritated some, most artists now seem to see the value in not having a handful of performers hogging the best spots all day long, Brooks said.

Carr--who pocketed $7,500 from his settlement (the rest went to attorney fees)--said he is still waiting to hear if there’s a chance he will get the use of the independent, nonprofit Santa Monica Symphony for his movie score.

But for now he has pulled out his rice writing pen for one last performance of his own.

On a grain of rice he has written “$43K =” next to a sketch of an Oscar.

He says it’s a microscopic good luck charm for his own big dream.