In my travels around Cleveland and elsewhere I realized that one of the landscape features in which I am most interested are the “markings” made on the environment. I don’t have the articulate smell of a dog – nosing around for that intense spot where a prior dog had lifted their leg. Rather it is my eyes that are influenced by the nuanced messages scattered about.

The last two murals I have posted here on Realneo – the Fairfax Park scene of happy people, and this “DREAM” mural which just went up near the Woodhill Housing complex this fall – make me feel uncomfortable. For one reason, there were no credits visible to explain their provenance.

Their placement location, their polish, and the juxtaposition of their “meaning” against the poverty and urban decay in their immediate surrounding environment suggest to me that these “message” murals didn’t arise out of their neighboring community but rather from an outside agent.

Like the phony Positively Cleveland self delusion campaign, these messages are placed and crafted to attempt to delude those that are most likely to view them.

So what I see here is really a gross, hypocritical, and deviant message -