DECISIONS, DECISIONS!

This photo above is of the "famous" (or infamous) Surfing Madonna mosaic that had a short life span under a bridge in the lovely little coast town of Encinitas north of San Diego. "Short" in that it went up about Easter and came down mid-June. In a nutshell, it is grafitti, and Californians are having an evolving relationship between grafitti and art, as well as between artists and taggers. You know the old religious saw, "Hate the sin but love the sinners?" Well, that's kind of where some of us are. We don't like laws broken and we don't like grafitti, but we do like art and we do like artists. (We haven't come to like taggers very much yet, nor can we sometimes tell the difference between good art and bad art.) Oh well, I think we are probably not alone in our puzzlement.

There is no way I can describe for you the most interesting backstory of this mosaic. The artist was smart enough to make the mosaic on a board of some type and then bolt it to the bridge so, as I understand it, when the mosaic was forced to be taken down at least it was intact. Hopefully it can find a more welcoming home. I have no trouble with the picture either artistically or religiously, though some have. If it were a roller-derby Madonna, I might think otherwise. But I just can't work myself up against something that is so eyecatching and vibrant.

Fox News has a most readable post about it online. Since I'm not able to reproduce a link on my blog yet (except sometimes when I've got my back turned one appears), you can cut and paste this URL and get a good idea of what this little part of Southern California, far from LA LA land, is talking about. NOTE: Actually, my brilliant son snuck into this blog and made "Fox News" into a link for me, so now with just one click above you can read the story.

It is good to have such a smart, helpful son! Thanks, Sean.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/06/08/surfing-madonna-drawing-tourists-to-encinitas-calif/