What Is Art?
By NONOBADKITTY! 9:41 pm Friday July 16th, 2010
I’m really late with commentary on this, but awhile back there was a story on the news about a “notorious” cat-tagger that had finally been arrested. When I first heard the story it made me smile to think there’s someone out there painting cats on freeways. Then I wondered why the hell is a guy who paints cats on freeway overpasses considered “notorious” in the first place? I mean uhm … cats are awesome. Anyone who likes to paint cats must also be awesome. Right? Well, apparently not according to the LAPD because they apparently care more about cat-tagging than “real” crime. In my opinion, his work is not “tagging” but then I don’t know for sure if the guy is a gang member marking his turf or not, but even if it is tagging, it’s a lot better than the usual tags you see around the ‘hood. I remember as a small kitty, erm sorry, kiddie, there was another “cat-tagger” who graced the flood control channels with painted pussies. I remember being intrigued by them as a kid and thinking how cool it was that someone turned the ugly-ass storm drain covers into smiling cat faces. I also seem to recall there was a bit of an outrage back then too that this person must be stopped, as he was just encouraging more graffiti along the flood channels (and yes, it did get somewhat out of control at one point.) But this brings up the question that was drilled into my head in art school: What is art? Some of the graffiti I’ve seen around the city is, in my opinion as an art-degree possessing person, most definitely art. Some of it is just crap. In my opinion a lot of “art” in galleries and museums is also crap. But where do we draw the line? Who decides? If someone were to pay a million dollars to buy a brick wall with gang tags all over it, would that make it art? Is it only art if it expresses some esoteric idea the person is trying to convey? In art school, one of the generally accepted criteria of art is that it causes an emotional response in the viewer. If a freeway cat-tag makes you smile, is it art? If it causes outrage is it art? I think so.
Disclaimer: I am not implying by my use of the phrase “cat tagger” in reference to Leo Limón, that he was a tagger or gang member, I just used it to show the idiocy of using meaningless labels (ie tags) to categorize someone’s art.













