“Art is in the eye of the beholder.” We’re all familiar with that expression of artistic relativism and interpretive carte blanche. “It is what it is” also works. A lot of us, for example, wouldn’t go to Christie’s to bid up “Orange, Red, Yellow” by Mark Rothko even if we were obscenely rich. And a bunch of us likely like our art flat-screened.
But we should all be able to agree on this: Those that spray paint others’ property without permission are vandals, not “graffiti ‘artists.'” It speaks volumes that Tampa’s historic district, Ybor City, has to increasingly employ cameras just to scan for such miscreants.
Recently a prime suspect, a local “artist,” was arrested and charged with burglary and criminal mischief in Ybor. Good. If the charges hold up, the next stage will be a proper sentence. In this case, the art of punishment would seem appropriate.
A vandal-target, public pillory in the middle of Seventh Avenue as part of a “Welcome Paint Ballers” promotion could be in the mix. But better yet, why not assign this aesthetic lout–and any spray-paint taggers bagged along the way–to truly meaningful community service? Perhaps spiffing up the butt-ugly Con Agra silo for openers. It’s entirely too visible to GOP Conventioneers as well as the rest of us. Or joining with the volunteers helping out Michael Parker, a real artist, on the ambitious,12,600-square-foot mural he’s painting on the side of an Adamo Drive steel fabrication plant.
Parker’s project will depict the culture and heritage of Ybor. It could also provide a unique medium for some unlikely cultural contributors.