The South Portlander

....and until then I will be happy to take the money.

Why shouldn’t he be happy to take the money? He entered the competition and won. Good for him. Or do you prefer the “starving artist” scenario?
Senor Gili’s probably making less for this entire project than he earns from one of his paintings.
I do enjoy his idea of saving some remnant of the tanks once their use has ended. I imagine the cleanup will be time-consuming and expensive, but it could be way cool.

I guess he sounds like a hypocrite talking about “blood for money”, and his personal campaigns to fight against fossil fuel dependency, and then he hops right in to bed with them and sells his himself out.  Oil tank art teaches us what about fossil fuel dependency?  His ugly design is merely a mask meant to elevate oil tanks to the unfitting level of icon. It would be one thing if he said he was just after the money or the opportunity to make art on large objects regardless of their place in society, but to respond as he does in this interview, with disingenuous drivel about humanity getting off of oil is pathetic.  Any artist with a true concern for global warming would never have participated in this horrible contest. Mr. Gili can save his preaching, enjoy his blood money, and look forward to a prominent place in future oil trade magazines and industry promotions.

One might also say that by using the tanks as a canvas he is taking a highly visible step towards their future repurposing. The art won’t disguise what’s inside the tanks at all. Indeed, most of us pass by them daily with hardly a thought, like a painting that’s been on our wall so long that we no longer notice it. Perhaps one result of this project will be to renew our awareness of the tanks. On the other hand, given the art’s resemblance to motor coach decoration, it too may rapidly become invisible.

I have far greater issues with the motivations of the Maine Center for Creativity than with this artist. In the end he’ll make some bucks and have a few more articles written about him, and this too shall pass. But the money needed to complete this project, in order to justify a vanity non-profit, may have a deleterious impact on arts funding for other projects which might directly benefit Maine artists and communities. And it’s also a little obscene to spend over a million dollars to spruce up some aging oil tanks when cash-strapped schools cut art and music budgets.

I don’t put a lot of weight in what the artist might say in an interview. I read his thesis, or as much as I could of dense artspeak through a bad translation, and much of it is what my grandmother might have dismissed as “poppycock.” The true voice of a visual artist is in his work, not his words.

I do agree with your concerns about the Maine Center For Creativity and its directors singular vain pursuit of a project that if public comments indicate, is not wanted and disliked to an astounding degree. The diversion of money to this ugly project with little concern for public need is immoral.
As far as the art goes, it does not do anything but allow the industry in general, and Sprague Energy specifically, to exploit the Maine coast beyond our borders in order to aid its own causes.  It is cynical p.r. that can be used in campaigns around the world helping to position the industry as one that is a good corporate citizen.  Of course here in Maine where we have to live with the ugly design, nothing could be further from the truth.  Citizens do not like project at all.  So how will our discontent be portrayed beyond our borders, I would suggest falsely.  The public has been virtually ignored in the process and the tunnel vision displayed by the contest participants should be viewed with great suspicion.
Art is political indeed, and it must be looked at in terms of the moment not some hypothetical future purpose that will never happen.  Sprague Energy’s donated oil tank park?  Come on Sharkey, I appreciate your thoughtful comments but lets keep it real, there will never be an oil tank art park, more likely, if soil samples allow, the land will be home to a hotel, or condo complex.  Or, if they really have their way, oil will remain there for as long as possible.  Mr. Gilis and Jean Maginnis have helped to ensure that.  In twenty years when Mr. Gilis’s salt water taffy colors have faded and peeled and Jean is off on some other personal goal lets revisit this and see who really benefited from this contest.  I doubt it will be you and me.

I forgot to mention a few ideas.  When you say “repurposing” I think of re-branding.  Re-branding and green washing are known tactics of the fossil fuel industry used to divert attention away from their true business model and intentions.  An example might be the recent Iriving Oil advertisement claiming to divert their tanker ships to avoid wright whales when in fact the industry is currently lobbying to loosen restrictions on ship speed and routing that will have the opposite consequence for whales. 
I also sense that when we hear talk of the tank farm becoming some sort of future art gallery that this is an example of how the concept can be used to float positive spin using an irrational hypothetical. There is only one way for the industry to look at this contest and that is how can it be used to help redefine its image in the wake of an enlightened consumer movement to cease using its product.  Well done Senor Gilis and bravo MCC you help to protect the profits of an industry we all want to end.

Drilling and killing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlnmylGlAc

Mr. Gili seems to rehash the same colors using triangles over and over again.  It could be said that his work is unmistakable in its repetition.  This begs any curious mind to question the MCC claim for its blind judging methods.  One might suggest that Mr. Gili was a known entity from the start and that the judges and Ms. Maginnis were jaded with the possibility of having a name win the contest rather than the best design.  Perhaps if one were to get extremely conspiratorial we could argue that he was chosen long before the final judging took place and that two local South Portland entries were thrown in to give the contest the appearance of fairness.  As the local press has given the whole contest a free pass, we will never really know much about the process, other than the endless stream of press releases issued by Jean Maginnis.  I will say that this news site and perhaps the Phoenix have been the exception in making inroads to understanding more about how we ended up closer to living with painted oil tanks in our home town.  Keep digging!

For example contest judge Paco Barragan has actually curated shows with Jamie Gili’s work.  There are many examples of a relationship between this artist and Mr. Barragan. 
http://flavorpill.com/miami/events/2007/12/1/m-a-s-h

And let’s not forget that another of the judges is married to Ms. Maginnis, a fact that was kept pretty quiet. It’s not rocket science to set up an impartial panel of judges; the inclusion of her husband might infer she had some difficulty finding enough volunteers.
Speaking of “free pass,” on Oct. 17 the Sentry published a verbatim press release from the MCC about the winner of the project.
Only problem was the folks at the Sentry apparently didn’t read it themselves - they reprinted the “fact” that Gili “began his art studies in his native Caracas, Venezuela, in 1972.” Considering he received his MFA in 1998 and his PhD in 2001, that’s an awfully long time to be in school.
Gili was born in 1972.
And yes, yourname, I sincerely doubt the tank farm will ever be an art park. I just said the idea of keeping a few tanks around in some way was cool.
I understand what you mean by branding. By “re-purposing,” I meant to find a new use for them once their current use is moot. Maybe a bunch of little Hollywood Bowl-type of things where a lot of tattooed skate-thrash bands could hold TankaPalooza? Or, depending on acoustics, we could resonate Enya to chill the whole city out? No, wait - a dog park! Woof!