Artwork / Mutually Beneficial / Mutually Beneficial
Mutually Beneficial
2006
acrylic on canvas patchwork
20 x 20 inches
In creating this series, I learned about a world I knew very little about, and this blank painting represents the most unsavory part of that world, a man I never met but with whom I corresponded via email. What follows is not an actual post he wrote, but rather a combination of the man’s many ads.
I Get What I Want (M4W 19-35)
Reply to: anonPOST-123 @craigs.org
And I want a Sexy Sugar-Baby.
Generou$, wealthy, $ingle, hand$ome, $exy, erotic and pa$$ionate alpha male seeks good looking, well built, healthy, happy, romantic younger woman for mutually beneficial relationship and wonderful adventures.
You’ve got what I WANT. I’ve got what you NEED.
One evening in May 2005, I sent this man an invitation to participate in my series, and, within twenty minutes, I had received an unpleasant response. I’m including the whole of our email exchange. It is a convoluted conversation which took place over the course of three weeks. During that time, the man pretended to be two different people and alternated between being abusive and being vulnerable in a very performative way.
From: Par A Noia <dud @fake.address>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 16, 2005 6:33 PM
Subject: Your kind and generous offer:
Wow, and do you mean that I could actually give up my anonymity and privacy so that you could capitalize onmy what I have written so thatyou canget lots of publicity at my expense, and perhaps realize a great profit by combining my image with my words....????
What a great idea.....And I have a process for these types of requests.....
Simply email me a copy of your check for $5.0 Million (US) and I will make some time for you. Once I receive a copy of your check I will put you in contact with my agent at William Morris and your people and my people can set it up.
Not????
Gee, too bad.
I am a wealthy, successful and private individual and very well known in this area.
Why don’t I just run around naked at the next large televised public event?
While I may be a well known patron of the arts, I have not yet lost my mind.
Good luck to you.
Sugar Dud
BTW I reserve this address for exactly these types of emails.
CIAO
From: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
To: Par A Noia <dud @fake.address>
Date: May 16, 2005 6:35 PM
Subject: Re: Your kind and generous offer:
Thanks anyway.
Best,
Gwenn
From: Par A Noia <dud @fake.address>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 16, 2005 7:26 PM
Subject: Re: Your kind and generous offer:
ps....I did look at your work, and you are very talented.
My mother who passed away in the 80’s has some of her work in an important American institution.
She was a well known local portraitist along with being involved with the museum art school. She had a commercial art business as well as her own studios and gallery, and donated hertime and talent doingmost of the commercial and graphic artwork for important Oregon nonprofit organizations.
She died a very painful death from cancer caused by the carcinogens in the mediums she used, before we knew what we do today about the heavy metals in inks, dies and paint.
If ever a portrait deserved to be painted, it would have been hers.
Thanks for reminding me of her today.
She was a wonderful woman and a great mother.
Her many grandaughters take after her, each in their own way, as her great grandaughters will as well
Good luck.
From: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
To: Par A Noia <dud @fake.address>
Date: May 17, 2005 12:08 AM
Subject: Re: Your kind and generous offer:
I’m glad my email wasn’t all bad in the end.
The museum art school—or rather the Pacific Northwest College of Art as it is was known by the time I got there—was crucial to my formation as an artist. I took classes there in high school when it was still in the museum building. Now I go to the museum, to the renovated print room, hoping that the smell of inks, acids, and soaking paper might somehow linger.
Best,
Gwenn
From: Par A Noia <dud @fake.address>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 17, 2005 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: Your kind and generous offer:
you wrote.....“hoping that the smell of inks, acids, and soaking paper might somehow linger.”
Seductive, but deadly.
This is exactly what my mother believed caused her rare, fast moving, and incurable cancer.
I heard that there is currently a NCI study underway of the incredibly high incidence of similar forms of cancer in people immersed in the production end of graphic arts.
I was around it a lot as a child, and I wonder about my own health in this regard, but so far, so good.
Be careful, and protect yourself from the unknown.
Luck to you.
From: Par A Noia <dud @fake.address>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 17, 2005 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: Your kind and generous offer:
PS...I hope you realize that my original response was satire.
It was intended to poke some fun at the both of us.
Sorry if you missed it.
Incredibly flat medium.
Ciao
Then, from an entirely different address, I received the following emails. To begin with, I had no idea that I was corresponding with the same person. I did not even know which post this man had written. I replied to many posts in a single sitting, and this man blocked knowledge of the post he had written. That should have been my first hint: Par A Noia did so as well. That and the fact that both Par A Noia and Guy Person were preoccupied with their compensation should have helped me see that they were the same person.
From: Guy Person <guy @ashamed.anonymous>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 24, 2005 12:15 AM
Subject: Re: A portrait.
What is your selection process, and what is my compensation??
Do we split the $$ and do I retain my rights??
From: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
To: Guy Person <guy @ashamed.anonymous>
Date: May 24, 2005 1:04 AM
Subject: Re: A portrait.
Guy.
Thank you for responding. I have gotten positive responses from a good number of the 30 posters I approached along with a few inquisitive emails like your own.
The posters I approached are all men seeking women, and you each use a tone in your post that communicated a certain kind of confidence, blunt honesty, and rawness that intrigued me. You are also all professionals. The selection process is fairly arbitrary from there.
The series will include six or seven posters and one self-portrait along with mock post. My statement will describe me physically, as well as say that I am willing to meet anyone who is solvent. The series is a deconstruction of your typical meal-ticket date. It is my way of talking about what it CAN mean to be a young starving artist. I want to clarify that I do not ask my models for money, only their time. I’ll buy the social beverage for our interview. Models will not be compensated for their time except in that they get to see their portrait done by me without having to commission me to do it—that will appeal to some people (who like my work) and not at all to others. I have attached the model release which all models for this series must sign. It protects your rights—your privacy rights—as well as mine—my rights to my work. It confirms that I will use the photos I take of you only to create the portrait (and not to advertise underwear, for example) and that the portrait I create will be used exclusively to promote my work.
In the end, the series is an exploration of urban loneliness, of the disconnectedness we feel even in the midst of so many people. This is the main thrust of my whole body of work.
I hope that answers some of your questions. Again, thank you for responding.
Best,
Gwenn
From: Guy Person <guy @ashamed.anonymous>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 24, 2005 7:16 AM
Subject: Re: A portrait.
Think I’ll pass.
Ciao
A week later, the following email came after I responded to two new posts. I was starting to get the picture when, again, the man used the trick of blocking knowledge of which post his was. Add to that the fact that I had contacted only two men this time and both wrote back, and I finally understood the game.
From: Guy Person <guy @ashamed.anonymous>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 30, 2005 6:12 PM
Subject: Re: A portrait.
We’ve had this conversation, and you can’t afford me.
Luck to you.
Guy
There it was, so plain and simple that not even someone as gullible and optimistic as me, could ignore it: Guy Person referred to something Par A Noia had written ten days before. I am easy to fool because I want to believe that people are honest with one another. Still, I could no longer doubt that Par A Noia / Guy Person was not only boorish, but he was a liar too. I decided that Guy could use a playful poke. He seemed too used to being in control and dominating every interaction: that is not good for anyone.
From: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
To: Guy Person <guy @ashamed.anonymous>
Date: May 30, 2005 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: A portrait.
Sorry I keep emailing you: your various posts are always so very intriguing.
And, no. You can’t afford me.
Gwenn
From: Guy Person <guy @ashamed.anonymous>
To: Gwenn Seemel <gwenn.seemel @gmail.com>
Date: May 30, 2005 6:44 PM
Subject: Re: A portrait.
Gwenn, we’ve gone over the financial issues here before, and you were clear about being unable to afford my price or meet my terms.
You really should have a better idea of who you are speaking with before you put your foot in it like you have, but best of luck to you.
This is another reason I would not work with you.
Previous artists I have supported have made the covers of Life, Look, Time and Newsweek, and I have also helped produce a film about an artist that won awards at the Cannes Film Festival, among others.
Good Luck in your project, but you really CAN’T afford me.
ciao.
Guy
Happily, all the other men I communicated with through this series were much nicer than this, even the ones who did not wish to participate. In fact, over the years, I’ve run into this participant from Mutually Beneficial now and again, and it’s fun to catch up on what’s new in each other’s lives.