Urban Art Association

Guaranteed that guitar has never been played

If you pay attention, the real kitchen is downstairs. That is the bar/fun/spirits area.

This happens when you own a home like this one.

Nice pad gripin. Love the Tin tin rocket on the corner !!

Maybe a black shadow frame would help it to pop out, but works fine as it is: simple and clean.

yes the rocket was a birthday present. but my goal is to get this bigger one (seen in a comicshop)

I like your home!

Another vote for no frame. I love seeing the canvas edges, makes them "feel real: for me. Love work who is it by?

Also love the eames rocking chair is it upholstered? Have never seen one that colour.

Nice rocket too...

No frame vote here too. I also love to see the canvas sides

These are fair comments.

With apologies for the essay, here are some qualifications, counterarguments and other responses:


1.  Whenever a stranger begins to tell me about their mother, I get flashbacks of the Voight-Kampff test.

That said, the advice of your mother is probably well-intentioned and appropriate in many situations. Less honourably, it may at times be followed for the purpose of avoiding at all costs any rocking of the boat. This would epitomise a "Death before social awkwardness"-type of mindset.

When applied in a broad-brush fashion, without discrimination, I believe that advice is at risk of being not only unhelpful but harmful and regressive. The effect is to wallpaper over differences in opinion as if they didn't exist — when it could actually be enlightening for all parties if those differences were openly acknowledged and examined, even celebrated.


2.  A lot of other mothers probably said the same thing to their children as well. Ironically, this code of conduct might be partly responsible for the pervasiveness of the "rancid chintz-fests" you complain about in your post. We may be surrounded by generations who've been raised to shut their mouths, rather than take part in potentially fruitful exchanges that include competing views.

If art and decorative preferences were more frequently discussed in a calm, grown-up manner, perhaps larger numbers of people would be prompted to reassess and make changes to their home decor (including changes you'd consider improvements).

It may be that opposing viewpoints and critical comments are to your eyes inherently negative or malicious, and to be avoided. For me they're challenging, often informative, and therefore often constructive. Sometimes it's all just down to perception. Although people may feel insecure in their choices, sharing opinions about art or hanging styles need not be any different than debating (or even arguing about) the merits of their new t-shirt, their favourite television programme, or the football team they've supported since childhood.


3.  A gentle provocation and rhetorical question:

Which of the following two behaviours is more noble when you're invited to someone's home and prompted to share your thoughts about the art on their walls?

(A) Confirm in an honest, matter-of-fact way that some of the art isn't to your own taste — and that you prefer work depicting other subjects, covering other themes, or executed in a different style or medium.

Or

(B) Smile, offer nothing but vacuous pleasantries to spare possible embarrassment or hurt feelings, drink their tea and help yourself to their biscuits. And then, at a later date, bítch anonymously on some message board about the chintz-fest you had to endure.

I trust you'll forgive my distortion of your words. It was purely for effect, to better illustrate my point. The underlying principle remains the same.


4.  Interestingly, some of what you refer to as chintz sounds pretty appealing to me. While I'm not 100% certain what you mean by "posters of French bistro art", if it's things like old Orangina and Perrier advertisements or Tour de France illustrations, I'm quite fond of those.

My own idea of chintz would actually be Star Wars imagery. Or Pearl Jam posters. Or maybe Betty Blue or Reservoir Dogs posters. Not that I have anything against those films or the band. It's more the fact I'd rather not be surrounded for long periods of time by clichéd, college-dorm-room decor.

What constitutes naff is therefore relative. It varies according to each person's life experiences, their cultural reference points, and the associations they make with specific items or styles. And the fact our personal preferences differ should not stop us from engaging in discussion and pinpointing areas where we disagree. Keeping one's mind open to other perspectives is everybody's responsibility.

So I'd have no issue with you or other members telling me that my taste in art (or music, industrial design, or whatnot) was crap — especially if they were also able to explain why. A few "Well done!" pats on the head may satisfy some teenage, needy desire for reassurance, peer acceptance or (worse still) validation. But I've often mentioned it's far more interesting to hear considered or informed positions that conflict with my own. These are the ones pushing me most to rethink, to re-question, and ultimately to grow.

I see little point in spending much time conversing with people who have the same outlook as me. Their influence would just reinforce my existing worldview, preconceptions and prejudices. It would also defeat one of the key benefits of visiting a public forum: exposure to a remarkably wide range of opinions and ideas.


5.  The Boba Fett image you enquired about is by RYCA. Its appeal to Star Wars and Dirty Harry fans is understandable. As an artistic concept, however, that mash-up could at best be described as trite or Banksy-lite.

Can somebody please post a picture of a cool house with cool art... If not, I am gonna start posting screen grabs of my kid's "Minecraft" house.

If sincere, this is an unfortunate conclusion.

From many other forum members, I'd have missed the comment or left it unacknowledged.

Skipping over most posts is the blunt prioritisation tool I often have to rely on for efficiency reasons. So my focus is on specific members or threads of particular interest. Otherwise I'd spend a disproportionate amount of time here, to the detriment of separate sites I also enjoy and learn from. And it's always a terrible idea to allow one's news and views to be restricted to single (or overly-likeminded) sources — whether this be a newspaper, television station, message board or individual.

You're one of the members whose posts I look out for and actually read. It's why I'm surprised the above troll reference was made by you.

What I'm hoping is that the comment was based on a rushed superficial analysis, or that we have polar opposite understandings regarding the meaning of the term "troll".

about to sell my place.. realtor said the wall really shouldnt be blank, so we came up with this with framed stuff that was not on any walls. 3 i purchased framed.. one i framed and then decided i liked it less than i originally thought..

Love that Ghost with X's thing. I know I've seen it before. Who did that?

I like it. I feel like finding a piece of art by an artist that goes by Unknown is going to be more that a PITA

That Unknown is awesome.