Eugene W. Dillenburg wrote:
>
> At 06:49 PM 12/12/96 +0500, kocanda wrote:
>
> (in reference to grafitti)
> <snip>
>
> >this all leads me to ask why we need to bring "art" into the discussion.
> >most cultures that i've studied (other than we in the west) tend not to
> >even have a category called "art."  as you hint at above, it is fair to
> >question a purely western interperatation of "other" art.  but i have to
> >ask why even bother calling it art?  that only forces us to fit it into
> >(one of) our categories of art...
>
> <snip>
>
> Point well taken.  Yet, since the grafitti we are dicussing occurs in a
> western country, then it does not seem wholly inappropriate to me that we
> apply to it the prevailing of that culture.

thanks. but still not everything we make in our culture is meant to be
art.  i draw, and i also design quilts, but for some reason (cultural
maybe? unfairly?), i tend to think of my drawings as art and my quilts
as not art!

i'm quite ignorant about grafitti "art."  do makers of it consider it
art?  (while they are doing it, mean.  i'd have a bigger problem with it
if they called it so in retrospect while being hauled away for defacing
public or private property!)

i personally don't have a problem with saying that something could be
"art," whether bad or good, and still not be appropriate for every
venue. (like on the "l" or on innocent garage doors.)

> BTW, you made an excellent point on your other posting.  We must *never*
> confuse art with democracy.  Democracy is a wonderful idea in politics, but
> it has no place in art, science, athletics, fashion, cooking, and many other
> hjuman endeavors.
>

thanks again.  i can't count the number of times i've heard (in
supposedly respectable sources (i.e., CNN) things like "X percent of
americans believe in UFO's" or some such thing. with the clear
implication being that it must therefore be true. there are certainly
better ways of figuring out if the belief is accurate than by taking a
poll... (please, no flames from UFO believers!)

kjk (seeing your sig. and missing lake michigan (though not the grafitti
on the douglas "B" train.)