Category: Our Neighbors

“Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.”

G. K. Chesterton

As you drive on many local roads throughout the area, you can’t miss the spray painted words and symbols on many nearby outcroppings. For the purpose of this piece I am refering to this as “Country Graffiti”. There may be a better term but I’ve never seen it discussed or written about so this is my own term.

I don’t particularly pay attention to it but I would think most people at least notice it occasionally. Wikipedia has this to say about graffiti in part:

“(The) name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner’s consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law. Sometimes graffiti is employed to communicate social and political messages. There are many different types and styles of graffiti and it is a rapidly developing art form whose value is highly contested, being reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction.”

I must admit I’ve never stopped and asked a property owner if these marking met the above definition of graffiti. For all I know, the owners of property could have spray painted them themselves. I haven’t seen any to be what I would consider “social or political messages” though. Usually, it’s just people’s names and a message about so and so loving so and so.

From what I’ve seen, it basically records a person’s presence at a particular spot or commemorates their romance. However, Wikipedia also notes that “this type of graffiti is dated and is left untouched for decades, offering a look into local historical minutiae”. It could be claimed that it demonstrates a dull idleness which bespeaks a pretty boring existence and/or some desire for a quick thrill.

However, the flip side is that it’s really out-of-place in a rural pristine setting. Many would argue it actually works against local economies because tourism supports so many in the Adirondacks. If our picturesque roads, which bring people into the area, are turned into blighted thoroughfares, it takes away from the experience of why tourists come here in the first place.

Maybe I’m a hermit, but I’ve never heard this discussed at any public meeting: local and/or state. I don’t even know if the Adirondack Park Agency or the State Transportation Department has a policy on it.

However I did hear a story once about a local artist in Maryland who caught some boys writing graffiti on her outside wall and made a deal with them. She would bring them into her studio and teach them how to truly “paint” and they would agree not to make any more graffiti. Perhaps that’s the best message. If you give people an education and inspire them through your talents, you not only transform their idleness into something better but you protect the world and make it a better place at the same time.

“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”

P. J. O’Rourke

We Wish You & Yours a Happy Easter

Resurrection, Alvise Vivarini, 1498

“And when the sabbath was past, Mary Mag’dalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salo’me, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; — it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.”

Mark 16:1-7

“But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.”

Walter Raleigh

Sisto Badalocchio,
The Entombment of Christ
c. 1610

Click on Image to See Larger View

Pietro Lorenzetti
Entry of Christ into Jerusalem
c. 1320

“Middle age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you”

Ogden Nash

“Strangely enough, the first character in Fried Green Tomatoes was the cafe, and the town. I think a place can be as much a character in a novel as the people.”

Fannie Flagg
American Author

Even though local favorites Siena and Vermont lost their respective games in the NCAA tournament on Friday, it was a great season for both teams.

Congratulations to both the Saints and the Catamounts for a great year!

“An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.”

Henry Ford