Sean Connaughty

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Lost Painting have you seen me?destroyed

lost painting "all the voices are silent"

This Painting was thrown into an alley by someone who was storing my work along with 20 other pieces,destroyed or lost. I painted it back in '96
it has a subwoofer built into the lower part and was designed to have an audio component.

Lost Painting have you seen me?destroyed | Media List

lost painting "all the voices are silent"
This Painting was thrown into an alley by someone who was storing my work along with 20 other pieces,destroyed or lost. I painted it back in '96
it has a subwoofer built into the lower part and was designed to have an audio component.

Statement

This Painting was thrown into an alley by someone who was storing my work along with 20 other pieces,destroyed or lost. I did this one back in '96 "Dean" was storing my pieces while I lived in Savannah. I miss them. many were of sentimental value to me.
it has a subwoofer on the lower part and was made to have an audio component which was made by taking a recording of waves at the beach on the ocean and slowed down to the point that it became an earth trembling rumble. This work was shown at Thomas Barry Fine Arts along with I think 6 pieces, each of which had an audio component, creating a whole sound environment from speakers built into each of the paintings, there were 4 other sound-paintings that were among this lost work. the date of their disappearance was 2000.

Reviews

Sheila Regan 'Artists Cope with Stolen and Destroyed Art'

Artists Cope with Stolen and Destroyed Art from City Pages

The biggest nightmare for any artist is to have their art--pieces often
toiled over for months, or even years--stolen, lost, or destroyed.
Unfortunately, it's a fairly common occurrence, and almost any artist
can tell you horror stories of losing work due to poor security,
neglectful friends, carelessness of galleries, or just plain cruelty.
While having a piece stolen can sometimes cost an artist thousands of
dollars, perhaps even more disheartening is when a piece destroyed or
thrown out.

Poor Security

Marcia Soderman-Olson was one of the founders of Art at 2402 at the
Chittenden & Eastman Building on University Avenue two-and-a-half
years ago. The historic location had plenty of studio space and lots of
light--perfect for artists. The building was recently sold to a new
developer to be converted into market-rate apartments. While the front
and back doors are always supposed to be locked, Soderman-Olson says
that there have been some suspicious characters in the building, and a
number of the space's architectural features have been stolen off the
walls. The thieves pulled the building registry case, framed with an art
deco finish, off the wall, along with a framed print of a painting in
the main lobby and a set of doors.
01.Iguazu Falls-River is Red.jpg
Jim Tittle, Nice Pictures
"Iguazu Falls: The River is Red" by Marcia Soderman

Soderman-Olson had been working on a painting, titled Iguazu Falls: The
River is Red, off and on for four years. She had the piece in an open
studio in order to photograph it for a juried art book, International
Contemporary Artists Volume 2. Somewhere between Friday evening, March
25 and Wednesday morning, March 30, the piece was peeled out of its
frame. Soderman-Olson has offered a $500 reward for the work, which had
an asking price of $3,600. She hopes someone will return it to the
Chittenden & Eastman Building by either entrance, the 2402 Gallery,
or at her studio on the fifth floor. See details here if you have any
information about the painting.
do not tamper
Sign at back door of Chittenden & Eastman Building

Lesson Learned: Back Everything Up, and Hide Your Backup

Dance artist Tamara Ober had all of her video and technical equipment
stolen. Meaning, all of the electronics she began accumulating five
years ago. But she lost more than just the equipment; she lost all of
her artist samples, scripts, photos, sound scores, music, original
video, graphic design, and more--everything she needed to re-mount her
successful show Pipa. Everything stored on her laptop, hard drives,
video camera, and flip camera was gone, as well as her projector, wires,
cords, chargers, and her microphone.

The thieves had used a crowbar to get into her apartment while Ober
was rehearsing at Zenon, where she's a company member. "It's kinda life
changing to be so wiped out," she says in an email. "It's a hit
financially and artistically, but also to my spirit and my fear just as a
person." The lesson she learned is to always have renters insurance,
and to hide back-up drives. While she diligently backed up all of her
files, the thieves stole the back up along with the original copies.

Two days before everything was taken, Ober had met with a new
director about her show, and had talked about wanting to explore themes
on the difference between things that can be leveled and destroyed
(bodies, architecture, material things), and the things that cannot be
taken away (the spirit and soul of art, and creation). "Now I have
real-life experience to draw from," she says. "What timing. Yes, they
took so much from me, but they did not hurt me. I have my body, my mind,
and my spirit. They cannot take my artistry."

Loss of Money, Spirit, Hope

No matter how careful an artist might be in ensuring that their art
is safe, accidents happen. Sometimes there is no way to prevent
disaster.

Ken Farkash had a show at Soundbar last year in April. He had 25 to
30 pieces hanging on the walls, plus a giant sculpture of a dinosaur
made out of steel. The works on the walls were damaged when people at
the bar knocked up against them. The sculpture had its head crushed, and
its leg broken off. Farkash says that he has felt gun shy about showing
his work since. While he hasn't stopped creating--he depends on sales
for his career--he makes certain that a venue is reputable before he
agrees to have a show.

Christine Stark lost nearly all of her art during a fire at Babylon
International Café and Gallery where she was putting on a show with a
group of Native and African American women who had been in prostitution.
The artists had done a whole series of town halls and panel discussions
in the gallery space on Lake Street near Cedar. "It was the fourth
night of the show, and a few hours after our first event--a panel
discussion about prostitution and racism--that someone burned the
building down, targeting the gallery," Stark says. "So not only did I
lose nearly all my art, but other women lost their individual pieces as
well."

For Stark, she hasn't created as much since the incident, though she
does have a forthcoming novel. "Unfortunately, it's made it hard for me
to do much art--at least not as much as I used to," she says.

From Devastation, Inspiration
Parasomniawhole-2.jpg
Parasomnia 1993 by Sean Connaughty

When Sean Connaughty left for Savannah, Georgia to earn his MFA at the
age of 35, he left his art with a friend to store. It was all of the
work he had created in the 10 years since finishing his undergrad
degree. His friend, whose first name is Dean, had offered to store the
work at his home while Connaughty was away, so the artist made an
inventory, put phone numbers on every piece, and trusted his friend to
take good care of the works.

As he was finishing school, Connaughty called Dean to check in about
retrieving his art. He left a message, and then he got a message back.
His friend stated that the paintings-- Connaughty's entire body of work
up until going to grad school--had been taken to the dump. Apparently
his friend was having domestic difficulties and had "freaked out."

The artist was devastated and angry. "I don't think people understand
the emotional investment, or the degree of labor that goes into
creating art," he says.

Ever since it happened, he has been vigilant about documenting
everything that he does. The incident also made him think about the
ephemeral nature of art, and he has created work in recent years made
out of materials that will degrade more quickly, such as snow and
branches.
history of earth; Thomas Gustainis.jpg
Photo by Thomas Gustainis
A History of the Earth, by Sean Connaughty

There's also Connaughty's A History of the Earth, a multi-faceted
installation piece that in part explores the nature of documentation; of
archiving, conceptually and through careful preservation of artifacts,
history. "The work is embedded with countless bits of information," he
writes on mnartists, "which speak to technological capabilities and
geological and meteorological information, as well as cultural,
political, and personal experience." After showing the work publicly,
Connaughty has since donated A History of Earth to the Weisman Gallery.
"It was important for me to have it in a place where it would be
preserved," he says.

Vigilance and Caution

Many artists talk about their work as their children--there's an
emotional attachment that goes beyond material possession--but because
artists often don't have large resources, protecting their art can be
difficult. Artists that have had their work lost, stolen or destroyed
talk about the importance of documenting everything in case disaster
strikes, and to be cautious about where work is stored or shown. It's a
lesson for people buying art as well, especially as the season of art
crawls and Art-a-Whirl draws near. When buying a piece of art, it's good
to purchase directly from the artists themselves, or at least have
confidence that the seller is reputable.

But perhaps the most important thing is to remember, as Tamara Ober
reminds herself, "to focus on the artist within that is capable,
willing, and driven to continue creating. It's the stuff art is made of
that matters most."

by Sheila Regan

Artist Work

Roles

Painter, Sound Artist

All Work