Art all around us?

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/11/2010 (5444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Someone put a painting in a tree in a park by my house this week.

It’s attached by wire to a branch that’s quite high, at least in line with the third storey of my building. The painting’s not signed, or at least not signed in a scrawl large enough to be seen even with a zoom lens.

So about all I know about the artist is it’s someone who has access to a ladder.

Well, that and it’s someone who cares about their neighbours’ state of being.

The painting’s a bit abstract, but it seems to be depicting the trouser half of a person falling into a hole as their scarf flies away. Bright scarlet paint drips from the top of the unframed piece and attached to the upper corner are four bright green pieces of paper with the message:

Don’t fall into old habits.

I feel pretty safe assuming the artist cares about the neighbours’ welfare from that. Generally, when we’re warned not to fall into old habits, they were bad habits, smoking, gambling, running with scissors.

No one ever says don’t fall into old habits if the habits were flossing your teeth, returning library books on time and remembering your mother’s birthday.

I’m a bit ashamed that the painting may have been there some time, and I never noticed it. So much for journalistic powers of observation.

Perhaps the artist was simpatico with that artist who chained a stroller painted white to look like a memorial to a New York light standard and then enjoyed watching New Yorkers try to work out why.

Perhaps the goal was to encourage us to see art and beauty all around us. I favour that. I’m always amazed at the wisdom and poetry of crosswalk signs that say, Walk with light. Another good habit well worth keeping.

In any case, the painting is gone now, whisked away in the night, or at least during office hours when no one was around. And even though I didn’t know it was there until this week, I miss it.