Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/440033
8 DEC 31 - JAN 6, 2015 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM LETTERS TO EDITOR Put on your Tom Terrific Thinking Cap and remember way back to the year 2012. The art world was rocked by amateur art restoration in the little town of Borja, Spain. As Sergeant Joe Friday once said, "Just the facts, lady, just the facts." Today's column is based on a recent New York Times article. This is mostly factual except for the parts that I made up. Once upon a time in about 1930, Elias Garcia Martinez, a local art professor painted a fresco of Jesus on the wall of his local church at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy. These clues still not ringing a bell in the halls of your memory? Keep thinking. It will come to you. Senor Martinez's painting of Jesus was named Ecco Homo which means "Behold Man." Ecco Homo pretty much remained unknown to the outside world for the next 80 years. It didn't attract too much attention. Due to the passage of time, the painting kept deteriorating, like we all do, with age. As icons go, Ecco Homo was once a pretty nice icon. Unassuming, but inspirational. If your passion was looking at crumbling church frescos, you might stop for 30 seconds, ponder Ecco, and then start thinking about lunch. Herein enters the heroine of our story, Cecilia Gimenez. Gimenez is an artist herself, 81-years-old at the time she undertook her update of Ecco. Being of the artistic persuasion, the sad moldy condition of the painting had bothered Gimenez for years. One day the Muse struck her a mighty painterly blow and inspired her to return the painting to its original state. Out came the paint brushes and "hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to fresco restoring" she went. It turned out that returning Ecco to his original state of artistic perfection was a little more difficult than Gimenez thought it would be. The more she touched up, the less Ecco looked like himself. Undaunted, she kept touching up until her cosmetic surgery had turned Ecco into a 1930's version of Bruce Jenner's current transformation into a woman. Ecco had been botoxed into another person. Soon the world would come calling. Cecilia was reviled, made fun of and her artistic talents were generally pooh-poohed by all and sundry. Old friends wouldn't talk to her. According to the New York Times, "She cried and refused to eat." Gimenez was quoted by the Times saying, "I felt devastated. They said it was a crazy old woman who destroyed a portrait that was worth a lot of money." This sweet little 81-year-old lady was an international laughing stock due to the viral explosion of pictures of Ecco all across the Internet. Her revised version of Ecco showed up on coffee cups, T-shirts and the whole range of items you can buy on Amazon or at Myrtle Beach. Things looked pretty bleak for Gimenez. But wait! There is a happy ending to this story. Ecco has now become an object of worldwide fame. Tourists now flock to Borja to see Ecco in all his wonderfulness. The local church charges a Euro to see the painting. Spain has been in a bad economic slump for years. A flood of more than 150,000 tourists into Borja since Ecco has lifted the economy bringing money and jobs to this sleepy Spanish town. A nearby museum reports its annual visitors have gone from 7,000 to 70,000 after Ecco became famous. Borja prints a picture of Ecco on its lottery tickets. Thieves have even tried to steal it. That's how you can tell what great art is, people try to steal it. The painting now appears on the label of bottles of local wine. Borja has an annual appreciation day for Gimenez on Aug. 25, which is the day she repainted Ecco. Perhaps best of all, a comic opera is being written about how Ecco's bad art has saved the town of Borja. Andrew Flack, the guy writing the opera went to Borja to understand Ecco's effects. Andrew is quoted in the New York Times saying, "For me, it's a story of faith. It's a miracle how it has boosted tourism. Why are people coming to see it if it is such a terrible work of art? It's a pilgrimage of sorts, driven by the media into a phenomenon. God works in mysterious ways. Your disaster could be my miracle." Sometimes you can fall off the roof and land on your feet. Way to go, Cecilia Gimenez! ANOTHER FESTIVUS MIRACLE by PITT DICKEY Dear Editor: ...just want to say your current edition of Up & Coming is among your best... interesting content, nice ads and a spot on editorial. Keep up the good work. Merry Christmas, Jeff Fayetteville Dear Editor: I hope this message finds you well. It has been some time since we have spoken while putting together an event at Campbellton Landing for Mr. Rose. Thanks for all your help down there. One day our fine city will reach the river and his dream will become real. I wanted to tell you that I read UCW every week and I admire your stand for PWC against the City (not from around here) Manager. Keep up the press, no pun intended. However, I am writing to commend Mr. Karl Merritt on the Ferguson article. It is refreshing to hear someone not afraid to "get it right" and not be afraid to say it on a large format. It needs to be said even deep and wider. We are a nation of Americans in which there are many houses. We all have to take responsibility for cleaning our own houses before the nation's house will be clean. Mr. Merritt is spot on in his observation of the events in Ferguson. This was a terrible event, but fact is fact and if we can only see the soil in our neighbors house we will never be able to clean our own, nor our nation's. Keep up the good work Up & Coming! Sam Smith Fayetteville PITT DICKEY, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. Readers Chime In On Up & Coming Weekly a STAFF REPORT