The local art scene was abuzz last March when Robert Booker, executive director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, defaced a piece of art at a gallery in downtown Phoenix during Art Detour weekend.
Booker didn't like a piece of art that photographer Tony Zeh displayed at eye lounge at the gallery's fundraiser for Art Detour. Zeh had created a collage that criticized the Commission for not having given enough of its grant money last year to visual artists, and Booker took offense. He bought the piece and then, in plain view of everyone at the gallery, wrote the word "Bullshit!" on it, then signed his name.Okay. So a local arts administrator threw some shade in public. That's interesting. But the part that almost no one was able to appreciate is the fact that, the very next night, Booker himself had a piece of his art on display at another fundraiser at the Herberger Theater Center. One of the patrons of the event took a photograph of Booker's painting and posted it on Facebook with the query, "Anyone care if I write on this?"