By Geo Ong
A couple of months ago, during a rather quiet evening at the bookstore, I was approached by a tanned, hulking gentleman with a thick Italian accent. After introducing himself, whose name I somehow forgot instantly, he presented before me a wonderful pen-and-ink sketch of the small Italian town from which he originated. He told me I could keep the drawing. I was thrilled. People don’t do enough nice random gestures in this city!
Then came the pitch. He had just moved to Los Angeles, recently rented out gallery space, and is fundraising in hopes of opening a showcase for his work. Up to that point, I had no reason not to believe him. He had a convincing accent, wore his shirt almost completely unbuttoned, and commented unabashedly on the beauty of my female co-worker. Seemed legitimately Italian to me.
Plus, the sketch possessed considerable talent, worth of a gallery if you ask me! And I told him that. He thanked me, and then he asked me for money. I wanted to make it clear to him that, as an Urchin, I will do almost anything to support struggling artists but must keep my money because I too am a struggling artist. Instead, I said, ‘I don’t have any money.’ It was a reflex. I felt bad for lying, so I added, ‘I like your work though. Do you have a website?’ I would support him any other way. By visiting his site, by writing a post about him, by spreading the word.
I drew this. (Actually it was Leonardo.)
He told me he doesn’t have a website. Odd. I thought all artists had websites. I wanted to stand and ponder this for a bit but he broke in and asked for money again. I convinced him that I wouldn’t be giving him money. He said, ‘Then please give me back the drawing. I need to make money.’ I gave him back the sketch and he left.
So he was a bit angry, I thought. I can’t blame him. Handing out money on the spot isn’t something I do. My desire to help the less fortunate has been taken advantage of in the past, resulting in my giving money not to charity fundraisers or poor street children but to scammers and brats who had money but figured they could get away with using someone else’s. So I hoped that struggling artist didn’t take it personally that I didn’t give him any money and that he’ll continue to…
M***********, I thought. How can I be sure he wasn’t a scammer? I should’ve halted him in the name of Art and forced him to draw me a sketch of the Piazza del Prosciutto right there in front of me. He probably lifted those sketches from the website of a real artist (because I’m pretty sure all artists nowadays have websites), had them blown up at a Kinko’s or some other offending copy store, and was using them to get strangers to give him money!
Or he could’ve actually been an artist without a website. I’ll never know.
