The art of art: arguing with idiots

Though a life at sea can be peaceful and enjoyable, providing plenty of time to think and reflect while staring out over a vast ocean for hours and hours and hours and hours. It is also an opportunity to work with a demographic that I don’t typically interact with in daily life at school. Guys that wear shirts like ‘january 2012; end of an error (with the o being the Obama logo)’ or ‘Change that you cant get a refund from’ or ‘Obama is a big dumb stupidhead guy.’ Our meals are accompanied by fox ‘news,’ discussions about which country we should ‘nuke’ next, and how obama is a “moooslam” (apparently a sect of muslims and islam). Recently I was trying to remember the name of a film about a graffiti artist named banksy, who is an anonymous artist that stencils controversial, social commentary images on the streets of London, things like guns with smiley faces and anarchists throwing molotov cocktails that are filled with flowers and replaces paintings in famous art museums with his own satirical work and watches as people admire them. I was stumbling with the title when one of the mates jumped in “was it called ‘exit through the gift shop?”

“yeah that’s it. have you seen it?” i asked surprised.

“yeah it sucked.” he said.

“why?”

“that guy aint no artist. Any ol’ jackass can spray-paint some crap on the wall. I got a buddy that can draw a picture so good you caint tell it from a photograph. Now that’s art.”

“Yeah but hes making social commentary on what we find normal in the world.”

“yeah but you can tell it’s a drawing, not like my buddy.”

“but isn’t art a way of portraying emotion or making a statement that makes people think?”

“yeah but my buddy can draw good pictures”

“what about the composition of what hes drawing?”

“compo-what?”

“or how about the other forms like symphony, theater, poetry, or ballet ..er bad example.”

“baalet? Are you one of ‘em pillow-bitin’ queers er sumpun?”

“no” I answered dejectedly “but youre right, obama’s a queer and banksy aint no artist. Hey by the way does your buddy sell any of his artwork I’d sure like to see them.”

I tried.