Court Painter Studio Not United

For much of this week, one of the top stories on Twitter (and nearly everywhere else) was about the Press Attache who was unceremoniously removed from an Inglewood studio by an irate Court Painter. Other unpaid studio assistants in the studio filmed the whimpering man, who was removed from the studio by the Chretien Chokehold, as he was dragged out of the studio on Sunday evening . Before long, the videos racked up hundreds of thousands of views online.

According to another studio intern, the Press Attache A Hardon MacKay caused the dust up by refusing to move from his desk insisting he needed to finish a Tweet for posting the next morning.

In response to the event, the Alberta chapter of the College of Press Attaches tweeted: “When you eject an Attache in the studio, do you still ask ‘Is there a press Twitterer in the house ?’ ” The Twitter hashtag #unfairtoflak appeared thousands of times on Sunday and Monday, according to the social-media research firm Texifter. One typical post read: “You had a handsome talented Attache of the Press removed from your studio. I hope he sues your skinny ass off . #unfairtoflak.” Another: “Well, choosing a portrait commission just got a hell of a lot easier. #unfairtoflak.”

Here’s the statement Court Painter posted on Twitter with the help of his rehired Press Attache after the dust up was over.

“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at the Court Painter studio. I apologize for having to re-accommodate my closest business associate A Hardon MacKay. However I had to act with a sense of urgency to purge the studio by re-accommodation of a Press Attache who was about to post a salacious Tweet about the off colour goings on in the studio the previous evening. I have reached out at arms length to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation to my satisfaction.”

In a gutsy move the rehired Press Attache A Hardon MacKay tweeted a statement he felt Court Painter should have posted:

“All of us at Court Painter studios were horrified by what happened last night. I have reached out to the Press Attache to apologize, offer assistance and make amends. Nothing is more important to Court Painter than the safety of my unpaid staff. This incident doesn’t reflect my values and I’m going to make sure it never happens again unless my values change.”

Court Painter at first defended his action, saying he followed proper studio evacuation procedures and had no choice but to grab AHM by the neck in the famous Chretien Chokehold and remove him from the studio.

Court Painter’s response — which doesn’t include a direct apology to the humbled AHM — was probably influenced by something he saw on American TV and worried about admitting liability. That’s incredibly short-sighted. It’s clear to any reasonable person watching the videos that what happened to A Hardon MacKay was very, very wrong. By not fully apologizing, Court Painter suggests that he might believe otherwise. For anyone considering working in any unpaid studio position in future, that’s really sticking your neck out.

Court Painter may think he doesn’t need to worry about good consumer public relations because art buyers all over the world tend to book commissions on the basis of price. But plenty of patrons with expense accounts can choose to splurge on higher fees with studios they prefer, and many more still pick a single artist to rack up their upgrades to 800 thread linen canvas and top grade Windsor Newton hand ground pigments.

In a gesture of reconciliation and wise business practice Court Painter reinstated Press Attache A Hardon MacKay almost immediately with this comment,”The ongoing success of the Court Painter enterprise is chiefly my doing however A Hardon MacKay is the only Press Attache I could find that continues to accept IOU’s as compensation and grovels to be rehired even at a pay cut. Can’t beat that!”

Senator Murray Sinclair Sinclair, who was the chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,says preserving the record of the wrongdoing committed under the Indian residential school system is the best way to fight back against those who deny its negative impact on Indigenous people.

“If we can preserve that record for future generations, then these deniers will have a diminishing population of people who will believe them,” Sinclair said.

“There are still some people resisting — not just in the Senate, but elsewhere,” Sinclair said.

“People tend to forget that there have always been those who are deniers of history and they deny history for their own reasons. They deny, perhaps, because they’re slow-minded and dim-witted, but more importantly it’s because I think they believe in a certain delusion about our history that they are unwilling to give up.”

Sinclair’s comments follow a firestorm of controversy around Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak, who sits on the Senate’s Aboriginal people’s committee.The Ontario senator spoke in defence of the “well-intentioned” people who ran the residential school system and said the commission’s report was negatively skewed and “didn’t focus on the good.”

Sinclair offered an explanation as to how he responds to people who ask why Indigenous people don’t “get over” the residential school experience.

“My answer has always been: Why can’t you always remember this? Because this is about memorializing those people who have been the victims of a great wrong. Why don’t you tell the United States to ‘get over’ 9/11? Why don’t you tell this country to ‘get over’ all the veterans who died in the Second World War, instead of honouring them once a year?” he said.

“We should never forget, even once they have learned from it, because it’s part of who we are. It’s not just a part of who we are as survivors and children of survivors and relatives of survivors, it’s part of who we are as a nation. And this nation must never forget what it once did to its most vulnerable people.”