New York Artist Known for 'Gay Pride' Subjects is Prop 8 Donor
On her website, Chappaqua-based artist Maureen Mullarkey writes, in response to a question about why she uses gay pride parade imagery in her work:
"Because it is a marvelous spectacle, an iconographic lode. There is so much to look at. Art is not about 'appreciating.' It is about looking. People get accustomed to viewing art through a filter of words: theories, press releases, the pieties of art appreciation. Spectacle cuts through the static...I've never really liked parades that much...But when the majorette is a middle-aged man in a tutu and sneakers you know you are not in Kansas and you might want to stay awake."
But Mullarkey apparently has other thoughts about her subjects as well, which she expressed through a financial donation of $1,000 to pass Proposition 8, revoking marriage rights from millions of gay and lesbian Americans.
The New York Daily News reports: "Maureen Mullarkey, 66, made her sizable contribution to the National Organization for Marriage's 'Yes on 8' fund in June, a Daily News review of campaign records found. The Westchester County woman was one of tens of thousands who poured a total of more than $83 million into the coffers of Proposition 8 support groups - money that helped convince California voters to overturn an earlier court decision granting gays the right to marry in the Golden State. Questioned outside her home in tony Chappaqua - the same town where Bill and Hillary Clinton live - she refused to discuss her donation last night. When asked how she could have donated money to fight gay marriage after making money from her depictions of gays, she just said, 'So?...If you write that story, I'll sue you,' she said."
Posted Feb. 3,2009 at 10:01 AM EST by Andy Towle in Art and Design, Gay Marriage, Gay Pride, New York, News, Proposition 8 | Permalink
Wow. Just wow.
Posted by: Mercurys Wings | Feb 3, 2009 10:13:46 AM
Maureen Mullarkey's home page:
http://www.maureenmullarkey.com/home/home.html
Maureen Mullarkey's emails: maureenmullarkey@earthlink.net
and
maureenmullarkey@gmail.com
Mullarkey is a Contributing Editor at ArtCritical: http://www.artcritical.com/
Posted by: JohnInManhattan | Feb 3, 2009 10:14:55 AM
I don't find anything hypocritical about this. Unfortunate, yes. But not hypocritical. Artists are not required to be in sympathy with their subjects. It is often more illuminating if they are not.
Posted by: rascal | Feb 3, 2009 10:14:57 AM
The "Yes on 8" donor list is a gift that keeps on giving. The gays are certainly finding out who our "friends" are, aren't we?
Posted by: elg | Feb 3, 2009 10:16:22 AM
I wish I were more surprised, but there have been so many people who have despised us yet made money off us.
I am pleased, though, that people are reporting and talking about these people.
Posted by: Sal | Feb 3, 2009 10:17:43 AM
Sucks to be Maureen right now. Guess she won't be selling any of her ugly pictures to The Gays anymore.
Posted by: homer | Feb 3, 2009 10:29:35 AM
Of course she has no obligation to be supportive of gay rights just because she has gay themes in her art work. But you'd think people like Mullarkey should be able to stand proudly behind their public donations if those donations honestly reflect their beliefs. Instead, she--like other Prop 8 donors--cowers behind her "iconographic lode" (lode, indeed) and threatens to sue someone for telling the truth. Good luck with that suit, Maureen!
Posted by: Ernie | Feb 3, 2009 10:37:40 AM
While ANY donation to fight against others` civil rights is heartless, there`s nothing ironic here. Her perceptions of gay people seem as stereotyped as could be and she seems to draw gays as if they were animals at a zoo.
If she were drawing blacks as mammies cookin` chitlins for massah, would anyone be surprised if she were donating to take away the black vote?
Posted by: GregV | Feb 3, 2009 10:38:00 AM
I guess to Maureen Mullarkey, gays aren't human beings worthy of dignity and equality. We're just campy, odd curiousities for her poke fun of and vulgarly prance around on her canvases. I'd rather not be exploited by this bigot.
I'll definitely be spreading the word about her and her nasty attitude.
Posted by: Mercurys Wings | Feb 3, 2009 10:40:16 AM
Beat the bitch--financially. . .
Posted by: rudy | Feb 3, 2009 10:45:34 AM
Mullarkey is a real piece of work having also given $500.00 on 09/02/04 to the Swift Boat Veterans smear campaign:
http://forms.irs.gov/politicalOrgsSearch/search/Print.action?formId=21305&formType=E72
Maureen M. Mullarkey
81 Douglas Rd
Chappaqua, NY 10514
Some of Mullarkey's work is sold by:
Silvermine Guild Arts Center
1037 Silvermine Road
New Canaan, CT 06840
Phone: 203-966-9700
http://www.silvermineart.org/gallery/artist_detail.cfm?artistID=137
http://www.silvermineart.org/index.cfm
Posted by: JohnInManhattan | Feb 3, 2009 10:48:58 AM
A two bit, no talent bigot with an attitude, thanks for keeping this going and outing the homophobic bigots who gave money for hate to be enshrined. And, any gay person who wasted money on her "art' should burn it.
Posted by: raul | Feb 3, 2009 10:50:00 AM
I think the subjects of her painting should sue her for using their images without their consent. The guy with the umbrella looks very much like Jackie 60 founder Johnny Dynell.
Posted by: Mark in NYC | Feb 3, 2009 10:50:15 AM
Why is this shocking? Just because someone finds interest in another people's culture does not mean that she is a friend of those people.
Exploitation happens.
Posted by: noah | Feb 3, 2009 10:51:10 AM
GREGV, my thoughts exactly. Her paintings and her statements caricature our community as a circus of brightly colored oddities. It's no surprise she doesn't see us as equal human beings.
Posted by: NUFLUX | Feb 3, 2009 10:51:16 AM
Call her galleries. They are on her website, start a discussion.
Posted by: Chris | Feb 3, 2009 10:52:57 AM
She takes the "animals in a zoo" attitude towards gays. What a bunch of malarky (defn. "Exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive.")
Posted by: northerner | Feb 3, 2009 10:54:25 AM
To all the boys who are going to utilize her email address and other information, can you be a little more articulate than "I hope you die bitch" and other needless threats. Talk to her on principle and not on threats.
Posted by: Mike | Feb 3, 2009 10:56:18 AM
Think GregV pretty much nails it right on the head.
Posted by: Glenn | Feb 3, 2009 10:56:44 AM
Not really surprised. We often think that creative people are naturally on our side, especially when their works feature our orientation, but this is not always so. I know a female poet whose work often mentions gay people who is quite homophobic. I don't get the sense that she's a closet case either, which makes it all the more puzzling.
Oh, and burning art isn't the answer. While I certainly wouldn't purchase anything new of Mullarkey's, if you already own it, keep it. It'll be great for a museum exhibit on homophobia. The hateful art can tell us a lot about human nature, too.
Posted by: GayRepublican | Feb 3, 2009 11:13:07 AM
mullarkey indeed.
the bitch is full of it.
Posted by: alguien | Feb 3, 2009 11:13:58 AM
She's no better than a Jewish Nazi
Posted by: chasmader | Feb 3, 2009 11:26:58 AM
Dear Maureen:
Fuck you.
Love
Posted by: Sean | Feb 3, 2009 11:33:15 AM
I wonder who's been buying those gay-themed paintings? Hard to imagine them hanging in a Mormon living room. I would suspect you'd find a high percentage of gay and gay-friendly people among the collectors who own these paintings. Those people probably collected her work in part because it seemed to celebrate gay identity. They have every reason to be upset when they learn that the artist they've supported is actually hostile to gay people and actively working to deny us equal rights.
As an art collector, I would not want one of her pieces on my wall now. And if I already owned one, I'd throw it out.
Posted by: NickC | Feb 3, 2009 11:54:31 AM
Owners of her art may also wish to consider auctioning it off as a fundraiser for Repeal 8 groups. It would be a more productive use of energy to turn her art and her hate into something positive for the queer community.
Posted by: Patrick | Feb 3, 2009 12:20:34 PM