Community Members

I would like to propose a course on "Finding the will to learn what this is all about for yourself, rather than repeating corporate media's attempts to dissuade Americans from practicing justified and disobedient anger."
Kudos to you, Stuart, for answering cheerfully instead of taking Lincoln's clich�d bait. I'm a smaller person than you are.

Hello Karen: Thanks for the correction. The Helmer Nature Center screening came with a packet of information on kids events, so I had thought the screening was part of the kids' programming. We've made the correction to special event. Thanks again.

John: Actually, I have long felt this way about bugs, and my ideas were enhanced by a philosophy class which clearly introduced to me how we culturally place hierarchies on different animals (and it varies from culture to culture). I've always had trouble with the idea of killing things, no matter how minute, and prefer to carry bugs outdoors rather than squash them or get out the can of raid. I find insect life to be rich and fascinating, if alien and on a seriously smaller scale. And yet, I have been a renewed carnivore for the past 2 years, fully aware of the horrors and suffering involved in our food system, not only to individual animals, but in that we decimate ecosystems with our mindless consumption. Yet few of us are directly involved in the slaughter, so the blow of our involvement in it is softened. But still we are involved. I feel the issue should be looked at with active consideration toward all of the varied ethical complexities before stones are thrown. I don't feel that anyone can justifiably cast stones.

While not excusing the horrible act from Otterness's past, I wanted to point out that all of our hands are dirty; whether of not you can see this is a matter of how you are choosing to look at things. How many of us own iPhones, or mourned the death of heroic Steve Jobs? How many of us would give up the iPhones or speak out against his legacy if made fully aware of the sweatshop conditions the gadgets are made in, even after Mr. Jobs was made aware of 34 hour shifts and suicides by workers? Indeed, his company's answer to this awareness was to place bars on windows and nets underneath to prevent further jumpers. That's all. So, who's throwing out their Apple products?

Great reading on the subject of our ability to justify our terrible actions with wanton irrationality is the essay, "Consider the Lobster," by David Foster Wallace. The willingness to be honest with yourself is one of the most valuable tools you can learn.

I do not mean to tell anyone what to do or how to live, but I do think it's wise to remove any and all blinders when approaching anything. We're complicated. Willingness to examine complications is the way toward understanding each other. Truth isn't tidy. Or, take it from Oscar Wilde: "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Hey Red,
Just got some info on the 2011 reunion:
Sat-August 20th "Annual Clarissa Street Reunion"
Neighborhood Reunion, parade, jazz, gospel, poetry, r&b performances,
vendors and food. For more information contact the Committee
at 234-4177.

Hi Irma,
This article was just a short bit meant to encourage readers to attend the event, at which you could have received more info on the sculpture. I believe you can find more information at the MAG's website: magart.rochester.edu/Obj7811?sid=7839&x=386102
Or visit the MAG to see the work and learn more.

I understand what your meaning is, and my apologies for any undue stress.

Harold,
While I regret that you took offense to this article, I'm confused by your assertion that we're promoting a prejudice. The phrase that you quoted, "the social stigma of mental illness," is taken directly from the Reel Mind Film Festival's mission statement on its website: www.thereelmind.com.
While those are not my words, I do believe that this social stigma against individuals who suffer from mental illness exists. I have witnessed this stigma and insensitivity through my own experience in viewing how mentally ill family members and friends have been received by the wider community.
Neither I nor Reel Mind are not trying to create a prejudice, we are trying to address a prejudice that exists, and promote compassion.

The show is temporarily down due to damage to the salon. We'll update you when the show is back up (it will be on view through July 30) !

Apologies for the oversight - it was brought to my attention that the daytime event details were unclear here. ALL EVENTS take place Tuesday, March 29.

And thanks for the anecdote and heads up, Christopher! :)

Marc and Scott: thank you for your corrections, and my apologies; next time I will double check my initial sources. We will also be issuing a correction in next Wednesday's paper.

Darren: thanks for your note. This gives us an opportunity to open up a potentially good discussion with the Rochester community regarding our outdoor art scene, and specifically, the limited way that we tend to think of graffiti. To answer your first question: I did not consider outdoor art which belongs to art institutions (for example the sculpture on the grounds of the MAG) for this piece, because I spend a lot of time covering indoor art and their collections. With a limited word-count, I had to draw the line somewhere, and one of those lines was most outdoor art owned by museum/gallery. I am familiar with, and have visited ArtisanWorks; please refer to my 2009 review: www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/entertainment/art/2009/05/ART-REVIEW-Living-Waters/
as well as this 2009 review by Luke Strosnider:
http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/entertainment/art/2009/02/ART-REVIEW-The-Color-of-Loss/

I am interested in why you believe that Cobbs Hill/the water towers is a dangerous location. I am also interested in what your definition of 'true artists' might be. Talent and intellect can be found outside of the ordained gallery space, and some self-taught artists are just as talented and driven, if not more so, than some art-school products. From my own experience of looking at art in this town, there are plenty of established artists creating ho-hum work that no one dares to challenge as 'real art.' There are plenty of 'real artists' I've met who do not work half as hard at their craft. Should they, in every case, take precedence over those who do not have a proper artist's education and resume? There is much that we miss, in following that way of thinking.

You call graffiti 'vulgar.' What vulgarity is found in graffiti that cannot be found in the collections of any established museum (in the idea that we can learn something from it)? Can we learn nothing from the streets?

When I began writing for City Newspaper, one of my goals was to encourage readers, residents, and tourists to consider art made by local and emerging artists, not just the shows in the big art houses of Rochester. At times, there are valuable things being said by talented people who are either ignored by, or choose to go a different route from, established and ordained art spaces. The issue is often control. If you put it up on the streets, you have a direct (if temporary) line to an audience, unpolluted by rules that a gallery enforces or must uphold in the interest of funding.

Graffiti has a long history, in many countries, of being used as a voice by a protesting people when the free press is taken away. This is true today and elements of it can be found in this city -- not in all graffiti (some is just pretty, some is just boastful, some is just clever) -- but interesting stuff is there. In an era when a corporation (McDonalds, Starbucks, pick any corner-store pharmacy, the U.S. MILITARY, etc.) can advertize whatever they wish, where ever they wish, in efforts to sell sell sell their product and ideology, with no regard for what each member of the neighborhood wants to see, graffiti is a welcome change to many, and a way to take back the neighborhood. Decisions about what is seen can be made, and not just by entities who have lots of money and connections. There are many locations where the residents welcome the murals and look forward to annual creativity events (see the BBoy BBQ site on N. Clinton), but any and all graffiti is often assumed to be illegal and unwanted.

Still, even some of the illegal and unwanted graffiti should make us look up and listen. We have been conditioned to be afraid of looking, just as we have been conditioned to stay within the limits of 'safe neighborhoods' even when they don't always prove to be safe. The Neighborhood of the Arts was known as a rough neighborhood, before the public art went up. When I attended an ArtWalk meeting a couple of years ago, the speaker (a cop) said that the presence of the art -- and therefore the presence of residents on the street, looking at it -- did more to quell the crime rates than the Police Department could. It seems that telling people to go look at artwork and learn more of their city might discourage crime in other areas that need it. Fear of and hiding from certain areas draws terrible lines between our communities.

Graffiti will and must always be illegal and fairly uncomfortable to look at -- this is how we know we're getting another, perhaps truthier side of the big picture: because no one's paying for it. But again, this is some, not all graf. It's not all good or interesting, but I'm proud to claim these anonymous artists as part of Rochester art culture. Its presence makes us a real city, in a way. And history has proven that just because something is illegal doesn't necessitate that it is also a wrong. I encourage you all to think about this.

Graffiti may not be of your taste, but that doesn't mean it has no value. May aim in directing people to look at graffiti is to get people out around the City, refusing the order to be afraid of certain areas and certain people, to get to know who and what Rochester is, across classes and ideologies. To make judgment calls for themselves about value.
Even if it is 'cool' and 'underground hipster,' as you say, I still believe that there's something of value and interest to anyone who takes a good look.

Now, I encourage everyone to weigh in on this.