I was referring to his statement of “out of the way”. They are not. I wouldn’t consider all of those great, but that’s my personal opinion, I’ll admit. Some require more talent than others, and I’ll give you that…and no, they haven’t rolled by here, but I promise you, I’ll pay more attention in the future, maybe I can spot some great ones going by. I think maybe what doesn’t settle with my eye is the contrast and paint color used and that I just really like RR cars the way that they are. When they are rolling by, you can’t really study what is on them, so the opportunity is missed and it looks like scribbles on the wall.
My great aunt was in an old folks home in L.A. It was a great old building, but the walls kept getting tagged. This was years ago, and a few of the nuns saw talent in some of the tagging. They basically held a contest, asking for the walls to be covered, upon approval of designs. They got sketches of general ideas and had a jury (really varied, employees, residents, people in the neighborhood, and potential artists. What resulted was really something that everyone was happy with and a definite improvement to the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, the building was deemed not adequate and the facility had to be moved. Really unfortunate, because not only was the wall and it’s art gone, but the many people in the neighborhood who had been employed by the facility had to be let go. A no win situation for a political decision.