Ribbit
London, ON, July 2010
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The typical street in the typical city is littered with buildings designed to provide shelter for the lowest possible cost. Gargoyles, patinas and flourishes have no place today's bottom line economy. In their place we get cinderblocks, straight lines and a decided lack of anything remotely unique.
The result: Streetscapes that don't vary from one part of town to another. Indeed, towns themselves have little to differentiate themselves from others. It's a never-ending stream of sameness, and it's easy to understand when folks simply decide to stop paying attention. Why bother if it's all the same?
Well, even among the sameness, there's variation. In this case, I was standing in a gas station when I noticed this concrete-painted mural. They pop up here and there in our burg, little slivers of art where you least expect them, the perfect antidote to the epidemic of sameness.
Your turn: Can small things like this make a difference?
Here on Long Island, they hire artist to mural building walls to stop graffiti. I know of one instance where they hired a graffiti artist. One graffiti artist will not mark-up another artist...so they say.
ReplyDeleteIt's so much better than just concrete and brick. ( I even like graffiti, as long as it's not degrading stuff.)
love this
ReplyDeleteI love murals! If I see one it usually gets shot...with my Nikon of course...even Jamestown, NY has a bunch of them around town with scenes from the Lucy show (if you know the redhaired nut, and many people don't remember or even knew her, but she's alive in her town! Our river cities have them and to me they make a place and many tell stories we may never have known. Graffiti too is great at times, Steve is right...especially when a silent artist leaves his or her mark and stumble across it! Less in better, well anything is something!
ReplyDeleteMost definitely, small things can make a difference!. A fellow blogger named Sara is making her difference in Santa Monica :
ReplyDeletehttp://thedailyocean.blogspot.com/2011/01/winning-short-film-it-starts-with-me.html
She and her hubby ( prof. at S.M. City College are out to inform and improve the environment. Every day she goes out to the same spot on the beach and collect trash for 20 min... another follower saw her site and did the same on her side of the east coast... How amazing is that? and she informed her city council the trash she has picked up.
A couple murals in Cambridge, Massachusetts depict lots of people of all ages and walks of life. They are bright and cheery and the inside story is that they are real people who live in the neighborhood (or did at trhe time they were painted).
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful mural. I think it helps people to stop for just a moment and breathe in their lives.
ReplyDeleteSmall things do make a difference. They build up to create a big difference. There are so many things in our daily lives that volley for our attention. It makes it easy to go numb and not dwell on any of it.
Murals like this are just one example of how we can remember to stop and take note of all our blessings; whether it is to enjoy the greens and blues amidst the stone and noise or even for the ones that have never traveled and this glimpse gives them that 'daring retreat adventure'.
It is wonderful.
what a wonderful mural
ReplyDeleteArt for sure!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your dear friendship here in the blog-world, Carmi.
Please stop by today to share a special moment with me if you have the time. Warmly, c-
Comfort Spiral
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I love this. If there is nothing beautiful around you it is important to the human spirit to create something beautiful.
ReplyDelete