Most of the stuff you and I see around town is unwanted and poorly executed. Sometimes the swirl of letters is a message intended for a certain group. Sometimes the damage is cleaned away with a rag, but more often the property owner pays out of his or her pocket for a professional team to clean, repaint or replace (in the case of etched or scratched windows).

Every once in a while, though, a piece appears that makes me hope the cleaners don’t come too soon.  The piece that’s been up a few weeks now on the empty building at 2nd Ave. S. and S. Main mixes a 20th century masterpiece with urban neon shapes. Is it one artist?  Two?  Who’s idea was it to recreate Picasso’s Guernica?  Why?  Is it a statement on the current wars?  Is it no statement at all, merely striking in its sharp agony? Did the artist recreate all of Guernica before the neon overlay?

I know I should maintain a uniformly dim view of graffiti, but I look forward to seeing this wall every day.

(click to enlarge)