Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
In Chosewood Park, following the completion of a mural that was part of this year's Living Walls project, there's quite a lot to behold.
The artist Hyuro, an Argentinean-born street artist known for her stark, black and white depictions, painted this mural on the eastern wall of what had been the sprawling, 40-acre General Motors Lakewood Plant.
Her mural, located on the corner of Sawtell Avenue and McDonough Boulevard, depicts a nude woman in a series of stances. At one point she is clothed and as the viewer's eyes travel from left to right, she is seen disrobing with the black outfit itself transformed into a dog or wolf.
It's caused a bit of a row in Chosewood Park, with some residents thinking it too much to take in, given that it's near two churches and a masjid, and McDonough Boulevard is a schoolbus route.
Others see it as a bold and dramatic contrast for the part of Chosewood Park overshadowed by the massive United States Penitentiary that fronts McDonough Boulevard.
East Atlanta Patch received a number of calls this week from Southeast Atlanta residents — who were mainly divided about it.
On Thursday afternoon, a steady stream of motorists slowed to look or stopped long enough to snap a quick picture. Others parked on the crumbling sidewalk to walk up close and take it all in.
One motorist, who stopped for a quick glance, quipped, "You wouldn't find this in Buckhead," before driving off.
Art is subjective, of course, and no doubt, a mural of a nude woman was sure to spark debate.
But even abstract art depictions can cause a ruckus of words.
In July of last year, Inman Park residents debated the installation of a mural on a formerly graffiti-laden wall at the corner of .
In that case, as in the Chosewood Park controversy, some residents felt that they should have been consulted for their input before the mural went up.
What do you think of the mural? Do you like it, or no? Does it work for the neighborhood or is it a good thing that it is something that stands out?
This has brought a lot of attention to our neighborhood. While it's not exactly the kind of attention our neighborhood wants, we are hopeful that it will bring attention to the things in our neighborhood that truly need it - prostitutes, drug dealers in gas station parking lots, shootings, violent attacks, robberies, all the vacant/foreclosed/bank owned homes that aren't kept up. Oh and the pill clinic, which thankfully was raided by the DEA earlier this week. Why are those opposed to the art not more concerned about these issues? Why won't the media report about that? I guess it's just not sensational enough for them.
Of course, if you asked me about the mural on the corner of Elizabeth and Irwin/Austin avenues, I would say that while well executed, that piece does not fit its surroundings, and has nothing to say. It's just an abstraction put there for color, with no meaning or point or connection to the neighborhood. So everyone has an opinion about murals, but I would put forward that the Lakewood piece is better than most. It has context, is well executed, and functions as an expression of ideas about its surroundings.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
It is funny though, how nudity makes some people uncomfortable. I have a friend who used to live in Jacksonville, Fla. A friend of hers went to Florence and sent her a postcard from Florence depicting Michaelangelo's David on the front. Well, she never received it. Why? When she inquired about it at her local post office, they told her they confiscated it. They deemed it to be pornography. Go figure.
That was years ago and that mess is still there, not even a tenth completed after all these years. That's our money, and that's REALLY obscene!