“He is able to paint these murals with the assistance of grants from the DC Commission of the Arts.”

So, taxpayer money is being used to paint over cruddy looking buildings instead of just rehabbing said buildings with said money?

Let’s just say there are 7 black muralists in DC. Eight separate community entities want to have murals made about African American culture at the same time. They couldn’t contract someone else? Let’s say one of those black artists is actually really good at painting, say, fish, and someone wants to hire her to do a mural with fish instead. Would she have to take the commission featuring African American figures just because she’s black? And what do you do about a mural that features black and white and brown people together? Hire separate artists to paint different sections? Nonsense. You hire the person who is culturally sensitive, artistically gifted, and able to deliver dependably on-time and on-budget.

The mural above is about immigration, which effects people of all colors.

Last time I checked, Shepard Fairey was white and no one objected to his street art of Obama on those grounds. It’s simplistic, lazy thinking to look at the artists’ skin color to see if you should like something – rather than looking at the art. It could also lead to dangerous ghettoization of black art and black artists.

And Anon – give yourself a name if you wanna start a real conversation. I can’t tell if I’m talking to the first Anon or some other person.

Sure you don’t want somebody co-opting your culture but you have to look at the skills of the artist. That has to be the primary qualification.

That said, I don’t think this guy’s the best muralist. But I’d rather talk about how he renders the human form on a flat surface than to talk about the fact that he’s white and his subjects are not.

Joel, thanks for adding thoughtful, vibrant murals to our city.