Once again can't resist playing devils advocate.

   What ever happened to the joyful and liberating sense that one of the
   functions of art in our time is to transgress rules?  That was a
   motivating force behind many of the pieces of art now accepted as
   modern masterpieces (and I do mean "a" motivating force, not
   necessarily "the" motivating force.)

   Are property rules, written into law, so qualititatively different
   that violating them (in a pretty modest way) makes graffitti
   intrinsically beyond the pale?  Has everyone lost all of their taste
   for a touch of anarchy?

   And I live and work in NYC, and took the subway every day for many
   years, and I got tired of grafitti in general, particularly the black
   scrawls.  I always kind of liked the big puffy lettered signs, though
   I must admit a sense of relief when the fashion passed.

   We grow old, we grow old, we shall wear the...etc etc.


   Eric Siegel
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