I have a fondness for the excentric and off-beat, having often been mistaken for one myself. I say mistaken because I don't really consider myself that different from anyone else but then again I did go to art school, and I do ride my bike to work. 
Anyway, I over the past several weeks I've come upon some interesting "art" bikes during my lunch time strolls. How should we judge the art bike? Should we critique them at all. Do their owners have a compulsive need to decorate and embellish any ready surface? Or are they simply tools of pretentious and attention seeking 20-somethings, still living off the family dole? I have no idea and choose not to worry about the motivation of their creator. Art-bikes make me laugh and redirect my attention away from serious matters of the day such as war, the economy, and job losses. Who doesn't need a break from reality now and then? The above bikes remind me of gardens and cottages, embellished with found objects and recycled bits of junk that have found new purpose and meaning as art, that I've run across over the years, lovingly tended by some creative soul driven by the desire to make the world just a little bit more lovely and thought provoking.
1 comment:
"How should we judge the art bike? Should we critique them at all. Do their owners have a compulsive need to decorate and embellish any ready surface? Or are they simply tools of pretentious and attention seeking 20-somethings, still living off the family dole?"
Nothing to judge. They are joyous expressions of freedom! When I am riding I frequently have a feeling that would look like these bikes if it could visually express its self like that!
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