What is Art?

sm4him

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No, I am NOT attempting to drag that poor, dead, abused horse out so we can all beat on it some more… :D

I went downtown during my lunch hour one day last week and decided to attempt a little street photography, since it happened to be the day of the weekly Farmer's Market and we usually get some interesting stuff going on. I failed fairly miserably at the street photography; got a few I liked okay, but don't know if they are anything I'd ever post here.

Then I strolled down "Artist's Alley," one of the alleys in our downtown area that has been the subject of an ongoing "rehab" project, where artists can sign up to *legally* paint a section of the alley as they choose. It's pretty neat, and at some point perhaps I'll post of a few of the other images. But this one struck my fancy...

Aug13_4756editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

As always, general comments, C&C and witty banter are all appreciated (discussions about what actually IS art, perhaps not so much… :lol: )
 
Whatever it is, the owner of the spray can wouldn't recognize it.
 
Neat find Sharon :) Did you consider cropping off the metal fencing on the right? It is a real draw for the eye and I get trapped there which seems to take some of the pop of what is art.
 
The lack of punctuation makes me wonder if it's a question or a statement.

Art is using a period instead of a question mark. :)

Yes, it's actually the fact that it looks like there IS punctuation here, but NOT a question mark, that intrigues me. Was the "author" trying to make a statement? Or was he actually asking the question and just didn't know how to make a ?
Or is he/she just an idiot who likes to go around and spray paint people's otherwise perfectly nice artistic work? :lmao:

As a side note: This alley project has been going on for over two years now. The alley is now filled with a myriad of artwork, from some really stellar, interesting stuff, to some that is pretty awful, imo. But it's sad to see some of the really nice art getting tagged by stupid, senseless idiots with nothing better to do than aim a can of spray paint at something someone else spent many, many hours working diligently on. I'm pretty sure this particular one had just gotten started on actually painting their area when someone sprayed these words on it.
 
Neat find Sharon :) Did you consider cropping off the metal fencing on the right? It is a real draw for the eye and I get trapped there which seems to take some of the pop of what is art.

Ha! I actually TOOK that exact photo to start with, then second guessed myself and felt like perhaps it worked better with some of the metal fencing left in the frame. Also, I liked the fact that shooting from a few inches further over made less of the original "flourish" artwork in progress show. I liked having it just "peeking out."
This is the first one I took. I couldn't crop it in a square format, though, without cropping off bits of the artwork:
$Aug13_4754editweb.jpg

(EDIT: Oops! Forgot to straighten this one. Well, pretend it's straight. I'll fix that, at some point…)

Or, maybe I should just start over with that second one, where less of the artwork is showing, and crop it differently? I can keep the square format that way.
$Aug13_4755editweb.jpg
 
Definitely #2, great choice on less flourish!
 
No, I am NOT attempting to drag that poor, dead, abused horse out so we can all beat on it some more… :D

But it moved.. I swear it did. Hang on, I'm off to fetch a stick... rotfl

I went downtown during my lunch hour one day last week and decided to attempt a little street photography, since it happened to be the day of the weekly Farmer's Market and we usually get some interesting stuff going on. I failed fairly miserably at the street photography; got a few I liked okay, but don't know if they are anything I'd ever post here.

Then I strolled down "Artist's Alley," one of the alleys in our downtown area that has been the subject of an ongoing "rehab" project, where artists can sign up to *legally* paint a section of the alley as they choose. It's pretty neat, and at some point perhaps I'll post of a few of the other images. But this one struck my fancy...

Aug13_4756editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

As always, general comments, C&C and witty banter are all appreciated (discussions about what actually IS art, perhaps not so much… :lol: )

Lol..I rather like this one, the geometric design and the what is art thing maybe not as much as the brick next to it, which sort of draws my eye.
 
I actually like the fense but not liking slightly oof brick wall... the wall looks better in other two pictures

of course.. jmo.. and yeah, can't please everyone :)
 
I was thinking the same thing Maria, I like the fence framing it and giving a sense of place, but the brick has a good bit of color and pattern and it being out of focus seems a little distracting.

Timor I was thinking the same thing, the spray painting was done by someone else I bet. The design almost looks like chalk and is much more precise and used proportion in the design. So the spray painter maybe was observing that was artistic, but it's in an alley, so it's art but is it art? LOL
 
I was thinking the same thing Maria, I like the fence framing it and giving a sense of place, but the brick has a good bit of color and pattern and it being out of focus seems a little distracting.

Timor I was thinking the same thing, the spray painting was done by someone else I bet. The design almost looks like chalk and is much more precise and used proportion in the design. So the spray painter maybe was observing that was artistic, but it's in an alley, so it's art but is it art? LOL

Yes, the "what is art" was done, almost assuredly, by a different person. The design has basically been "chalked" in; it's what the artist was working on in that space, when some ****head came along and sprayed these words. At least in this instance, they sprayed NEXT to the design, so the artist will only have to repaint the black background. In some of the paintings, people have sprayed graffiti on the designs themselves, completely destroying artwork it took someone hours and hours to do. On the other hand, they WERE creating these masterpieces in an alley, so….not like it's totally unexpected. Just disappointing.

I am now wondering if I have a good in-between photo here, that still shows the fencing (which, like maria and Sharon 2.0, I prefer), but has the brick wall more in focus. I'll look into it when I get off work, but I bet all the ones I took with the fence showing are going to have slightly oof brick.
 

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