Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Spray It, Don't Say It

This Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Signs of the Times.

I have a love/hate relationship with graffiti. I love it if it's good, or at least clever, or both, but I hate it if it's typical, boring, meaningless crap, which is the overwhelming majority of it. When I visit Europe I always notice that the graffiti there tends to be more sophisticated, both graphically and in content. They still have their share of boring "tags," but they have a much higher percentage of thoughtful graffiti by talented artists.

The same is true for any art form, of course – music, literature, dance, theater – most people like to express themselves in one or more of these ways, and should, but most are not particularly good at it. I guess the difference is that bad writers and dancers don't plaster their work all over public buildings where it cannot be ignored. (Although bad musicians are often difficult to avoid.)

Not an important subject, just a few random thoughts from my tiny head.

24 comments:

SAYOTTE316 said...

Anonymous is back, i thought you pussied out with fido, fran, and derek

Anonymous said...

I never left. Just check the recent postings for the comments that bring nothing to the table.

Steinar said...

Hey, that's not Europe :)

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely hysterical - she calls it "graffiti" because it looks airbrushed. Will the laughs ever stop.

isee3dtoo said...

Comic wise, the dialog/caption didn't work with me on this piece. Then I started to think what would make it funny and I can't think of one thing, outside of porn sales-women dialog, that actually works for me. Two women talking lipstick or any make-up accessory just isn't funny.

On the blog side of things, I agree that most graffiti is a waste of paint. But I find it sad when I see an awesome piece of graffiti then some nut tags it. Respect the art, don't tag masterpieces.

Anonymous said...

someone email derek and tell him its okay to come back - piraro's apparently allowing everything through now.

munchy365 said...

I have a book called "The Art of Rebellion 2" and it's all about graffiti... but GOOD graffiti, like the pictures shown here. I can even name a couple of the artists shown here, like Blu ( http://www.blublu.org/ ) who made that huge wall with the pink people monster, and Miss Vay who made that picture of a woman at the bottom of the paragraph.

Anonymous said...

i don't really care for this cartoon.

and Dan I am going to have to disagree with much of what you have said about graffiti. Also, I beg to differ that the images you put under the links to typical boring meaningless crap are in my mind spectacular pieces.

JohnM said...

whether its art or vandalism depends on who owns the wall

SAYOTTE316 said...

sighhhhhhhhhhhhh

Looks like everything is back to normal.

Unknown said...

Mr. Piraro, I hope you don't mind my asking this, but since you frequently discuss political issues I wanted to know something. What are your views on libertarianism? Thank you.

Garrett Williams said...

Somebody sprayed "God" on a local sign, and I'm thinking, "Oh God...."

Anonymous said...

This is getting rediculous, Piraro. Obviously I am the only Anonymous here. So I can only post as Anonymous. Unless I actually posted as myself, which I am not going to do because I'm a chickenshit. I am Anonymous and I used that name first, so I will hide behind it instead of actually posting as a real name.

No one else is to use Anonymous as their posting name, I own the name Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

I agree completely, Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

"Ridiculous", not "rediculous."

Anonymous said...

my two cents - i think it is bullshit that dan was deleting insulting comments left and right last week, but now sits on his hands when someone attacks in his defense. it reeks of insecurity.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see that Banksy made it into a couple of your image links -- check out:
http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

Piraro said...

Kids,
I know my deletions are not as consistent as some of you might like, but I've got better things to do than babysit the comments section. I read them all once a day and delete the ones that include profanity, or just attack others aimlessly. (Personally, I'm fine with profanity, but since I include my blog address in newspapers, I have to keep it relatively family-friendly.)I invariably leave comments that attack my cartoons, no insecurity involved there. We've been over this before. Try to pay attention.

Anonymous said...

plenty of profanity in the posts above, danny boy.

Anonymous said...

...and my post was deleted why?

as i recall, i merely stated, "i never left."

Anonymous said...

dan, you seem to be way in over your head with this whole blog. why don't you just post your comics with commentary and let the comments go where they will. we can all take care of ourselves.

Shoshanah Marohn said...

I remember being impressed when I used the toilet in Stockholm, once, because there was graffiti on the wall in six languages. Long, drawn out, detailed graffiti. It was thought provoking.

Anonymous said...

I find it interesting that posters feel free to tell Dan what to do with his blog. It's his! Like it or lump it. Or start your own.

Penny Mitchell said...

For some reason the first thing I thought when I saw this cartoon was that it was a play on the Urban Decay line of cosmetics.