PUBLIC ART: A TUTORIAL

When I was teaching young children, each year there were boys who would draw this over and over and over again.

When I asked why they repeatedly did this I was told it was because they were good at it.

Now to the news that got me thinking that the world might need a tutorial on public art...

For the moment let's table the discussion of whether the white wash actually improved the building and instead look at the emotion that the erasure elicited....

It became evident that many people liked it and was sorry to see it go.

But let's take a look at a close-up of part of it...

Is that what you want to look at every day of your life? That is what you are forced to do if you live in the neighborhood. 

I can imagine that the sneaking around in the dead of night and painting your "special" design might be exciting, but what right do you have to force me to view some childish bullshit?

Well, let's take a look at some real graffiti "art". 

Now scroll up and down between the last two images and tell me if you can see the difference in the basic design.

Plus, just like those children who drew that "S" design over and over, most graffiti artists do the same old thing with little or no modification.

We have a word for that...

It's like the clever stuff on the internet...

Somebody does it first and it makes everyone smile, then it's done to fucking death and beyond.

What ever happened to the love of originality? What do you suppose creativity means? It sure doesn't mean following a formula laid down by others.

And we haven't even addressed the right of a building owner to do what the hell he wants with his property...

I don't even know if this is pro-graffiti or anti-graffiti...

Of course art is not a crime.

So let's take a look at what art is...

 And lastly some childish bullshit that untrained and undisciplined people like to call art...

The question of why bad graffiti artists don't do more sophisticated art begs to be answered. I would suggest that they simply have no clue how. They are untrained and too lazy to self-train.

Yes, but nobody is forcing you to go into an Art Gallery.

Many years ago I was interviewed for a national TV show about my work. They asked if I felt like I, as a public artist, had a responsibility to the community. I answered this way:

"I force people I don't know to look at my work every morning on the way to work. It's like being in control of giant speakers that play music that all can hear. It behooves me to ask the people what kind of music they would prefer. For the same reason, I judge the taste of the community and work within their ethos to come up with something in which they will take pride."

Some of the bad public art you have seen is like a group of people who have never been taught how to play their musical instruments standing around on street corners playing really bad music really loudly, then have the nerve to call themselves musicians.