Nothing ordinary about artist's eye
I was barely halfway through the first sentence of the Coastline
Pilot's Oct. 15 editorial ("Taking the art out of public places")
when I recognized the timeworn "I may not know that much about art,
but I know my kid could do better" tenor that the following
paragraphs would assume.
It seems that sculptural depictions of a woman shopper and a group
of people engaged in discussion is not discerning enough to qualify
for public art funding as far as the editorial staff is concerned
because this sort of thing happens every day in real life. This sort
of logic would also thus demand that there is no reason for any sort
of art that depicts anything with which we might be familiar.
Art is representation, whether it assumes the guise of the
abstract, the conceptual or the faithful rendering of the real. One
possible aim of an effort to represent the familiar might be to
elicit some degree of contemplation of what is easily taken for
granted -- in other words, encouraging seeing instead of merely
looking.
The editorial asks whether an overabundance of art in public
places would diminish its aesthetic worth and make the experience
"ordinary." Perhaps this is what is required to transform the
ordinary into the extraordinary.
CLAYTON SPADA
Laguna Beach
Vilification of our public servants
Shouldn't we be concerned about the level of anger in our
political system these days?
Thanks to those who have chosen to volunteer to do service for our
city and run for office in the past, Laguna Beach is acknowledged to
be one of the best run and financed cities in all of California. But
if you've tuned in to the City Council proceedings on Tuesday
evenings on our cable channel 30 or, better yet, attended a meeting
at City Hall, you'd never know how truly fortunate we are.
The case of Councilman Wayne Baglin is a good example of what's
wrong. After more than 30 years of public service to the city during
which he was awarded and commended for his efforts and was
responsible for many of the amenities and activities that we enjoy as
residents, he was forced to spend tens of thousands of his own
dollars to defend himself against a suit brought against him for
political purposes.
Then, even after the jury and the courts acknowledged his
innocence, these same sorts of people, the ones who apparently have
nothing to do in life but complain, are now trying to tarnish his
exemplary reputation and have joined with others to form a political
