I’m not a very arty person. I could say: “Oh, but I went to a museum only 2 weeks ago, and I saw 4 plays last year”, all of which is true, but to be fair I don’t even remember when my next-to-last museum visit was, and the only reason I saw those plays is because a friend of Ts is an actress. It’s not because I don’t like arts – I just have a total and complete lack of passion for it. That, and it’s bloody expensive.
Still, I do believe art is important. Art is important because it is a way of expressing oneself, and expressing yourself is the start of everything, I feel. And it doesn’t have to be Art, with a capital. It can be small, it can be fleeting. The woman humming my favorite tune on the bus, she makes art. The drawings of my friend’s kids on my wall are art. Anything that was man-made, that moves you, in any way, is art. And you can see it on every corner of the street.
Ok, this may be a bad example of seeing art on every street corner, but it ís a very good example of how it can move people. Sand artist Kseniya Simonova, who won Ukraine’s got talent last year, draws a painting of how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during WWII, which has moved audiences worldwide. The video has reached over 16 million views by now, so chances are high you’ve already seen it, but I never get tired of watching it… .
Have you ever gotten back from the supermarket to a dirty car which had “wash me!” written on it by some self-proclaimed comedian? Or even better: “also available in white”. I haven’t, but that has probably more to do with the fact I never owned a car than with being a good car washer. Now, imagine coming back from that same supermarket and finding your dirty rear window 
looking like this – wouldn’t that just brighten up your day? While I’m pretty sure Scott Wade, the artist who created this, is not exactly roaming on parking lots to surprise unsuspecting car owners, I feel it looks amazing. May this be an inspiration for you next time you see a dirty car!
I don’t know if I have any readers from London, but they might have seen this guy at work: for the past six years, Ben Wilson has spent days on end scouring pavements for discarded gum that he can bring to life. Each work of art can take anywhere from 2 hours to 3 days to complete, and so far mr. Wilson has created over 8000 of them, both for his own pleasure and on demand. It is more labour intensive than cleaning the streets of chewing gum with those steam-machines, but according to me the result is way nicer!
And if this is not Random Art, I don’t know what is. Knight Arts has been sponsoring Random Acts of Culture to take place in a variety of public places: Mozart at the Food Court, a little tango in an airport terminal, a “Hallelujah” in the shoe department – of the Handel variety, that is. They strongly believe in the potential of the arts to engage residents, and bring a community together – and for a brief moment in time, they do. Enjoy this performance of Toreador in a Miami shoe store, and be sure to check their website for more RAOCs!
A World of Lies 