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:

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

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

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

    ReplyDelete
  4. 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.

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

    ReplyDelete
  6. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  8. whether its art or vandalism depends on who owns the wall

    ReplyDelete
  9. sighhhhhhhhhhhhh

    Looks like everything is back to normal.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 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.

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

    ReplyDelete
  12. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I agree completely, Anonymous.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "Ridiculous", not "rediculous."

    ReplyDelete
  15. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  16. 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

    ReplyDelete
  17. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  18. plenty of profanity in the posts above, danny boy.

    ReplyDelete
  19. ...and my post was deleted why?

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

    ReplyDelete
  20. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  21. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  22. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  23. 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.

    ReplyDelete