I never saw myself as an artsy person, or someone with the mindset to view art in a unique way. The reading this unit showed me how public art differs from private art. Public art can be “hugely controversial” (p. 2), which I believe makes it special. Public art is meant to have a certain effect on the public. I found these murals to be personally a little confusing. As a viewer, the meaning of the mural was a bit abstract. The murals are meant to describe the development of the arts and then the development of the sciences. For the “Development of Arts” mural I understand there to be just about every kind of artist there is. We have sculptors, painters, musicians, etc. I believe this represents art and its development over the years. It’s meant to showcase artists’ improvement and development throughout time. “Development of Sciences” has a greater meaning in my opinion. It has a prominent view of how human kind has developed and become more advanced. For instance, as a viewer I can look at the timeline this mural gives us. I feel that this mural was created to represent how previous artists affected today’s artists, or “many of today’s built environments” (p. 5). We can look at malls and airports as the reading discussed and know that the architecture was taken from years ago and developed and changed to match today’s expectations, or civic improvement and beautification.
As said before, public art can be quite controversial. Many times it is funded by government’s money and then the image the artist hopes to achieve can hard to choose. Our public art shows our culture. For instance, different towns have different monuments or statues in parks; these works of art identify with that specific location. Sometimes though art is simply controversial because not everyone can agree on what they want to have represent their hometown, or even have in their public space. Our murals capture our school’s history and heritage as a campus. The artists didn’t create the murals for no reason; they were painted to show where we came from and how we have changed. The reading describes how public art can be “contentious” (p. 10) because our country values individualism. Public art as a whole is a difficult topic because we can’t please everyone. This point is similar to one stated above. There will never be a time that a mural, statue, or work of art will be appreciated by everyone in an audience. This leads into another topic. These murals do not necessarily mean the same to me as it may to other viewers. I will be honest and say that I was not overly impressed by them. I appreciated the hard work the artist put in and that they had meaning to them but I do not find meaning in them for myself. This opinion may show a lack of appreciation for art but I can’t quite explain why I was not impressed. This opinion may also showcase my values. While it is important to understand our history I do not find anything greatly artistic about these murals. find them to be expressive of history of man kind and art as a whole but unfortunately I find them to also lack originality. These murals are definitely art but it did not have a great effect on me like McGonigal’s TED Talk. I guess for me personally I prefer vocal works of art that painted ones. I think that because the murals are so old too that I do not connect with it as well. This type of art just does not take my breath away; more modern forms do. I want you as a reader to understand that this is just my opinion and that your view of the murals is just as important to share.
