Hmmm.
Posted on 08/21/2003 8:00:57 PM PDT by weegee
PILOT POINT - Is it art? Or is it just offensive?
A mural of a nude Eve is at the center of a controversy in this North Texas town, where the work's owner has answered police complaints by draping a bright yellow strip of canvas with the words "crime scene" across Eve's bare breasts.
Wes Miller avoided being charged with distributing "harmful material" but has vowed that the fight is not over to keep the work intact.
Next to the mock crime scene tape was a black banner saying: "Temporarily censored."
"We decided that an arrest, knowing how this town works, would not do us as good as the threat of arrest we're currently under," Miller said.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Michael Linz, of Dallas, said he will try to persuade Pilot Point officials that the mural is legally protected under the First Amendment.
For now, police in Pilot Point, 40 miles north of Dallas, are satisfied.
"I think he's covered it enough to stop a majority of the complaints," said Sgt. James Edland. "I feel he's in compliance with the law."
Edland gave Miller, an art dealer, a letter July 14 informing him that the mural on the north side of his downtown building violated state law and gave him until Aug. 4 to remove the problem.
The deadline was extended until Aug. 20 to give Miller time to consult with the artist, Justine Wollaston.
Edland said Wednesday that as long as the figure's breasts are covered, Miller is not breaking the law. If the banners are removed, however, the police department will resume making a criminal case, he said.
Miller said he is perplexed by the police interpretation of what is art and what is illegal.
"We discovered it wouldn't be illegal if we painted the breasts five times larger but covered them partially with a string bikini," Miller said in Thursday's editions of the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Wollaston, the artist, said she doesn't want Miller to face criminal prosecution.
"The notion that my artistic image of Eve perverts young minds is ludicrous," she said.
But the mural has drawn in the curious during the past few weeks, and has become a tourist magnet.
"It's brought people from all over into town," said Holly Cox, community relations director for the Pilot Point Chamber of Commerce. "Regardless of their opinions, it's brought a lot of people in."
Cute!
Ignorant, but cute.
Perhaps if we just lopped 'em off at birth like foreskins women could run around with their shirts off without people being offended.
(I'm just being sarcastic folks- keep that in mind before you flame me)
Hmmm.
What the heck is this mural even supposed to mean? The apple is there but I can't tell if Eve has eaten it (is that a part of it missing?). Eve feels no shame for her nakedness and Adam and Eve have not yet been bannished from the Garden of Eden. I say this because Eve does not cover her face or nakedness and she's still seated. If she was bannished, she would be on her feet walking out the of the Garden of Eden WITH Adam.
There isn't even much of a "garden" portrayed. The nekid lady appears the be the thrust of the art.
Well, at the very least, they must be perfect breasts.
FMCDH
An "only in Texas" ping to both of you. ;-)
A naked Eve is fine. But why did the guy feel the need to paint Eve naked outside? In an art gallery, or a statuary garden there is a context that a painting on the side of a building (even the side of an art gallery) doesn't have. I'd be willing to bet that the artist did it so that people would complain and generate talk about his business.
Looks like it worked.
Well, when was Eve ever inside?
And inside what? ;-)
Precisely.
The apple is just an excuse to put a huge picture of a naked woman on the side of the building.
Has nothing whatsoever to do with religion, or the Bible, or...
This is just controversy for controversy's sake - or for publicity's sake.
You're certainly not implying that that's a bad thing, are you????
EVEN IF the "Virgin" was Portrayed in the MOST OBSCENE fashion, (Latex, Leather, Obscene Mechanical Manipulation, Electrodes, Etc.,) As LONG As there were no Religious "Connotations," Everything is "Cool!!"
Does ANYONE see a "Dissonance," here???
Doc
Only when their boredom begets becoming the Art Police.
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