Might Be Time to Read the Prophets

I recently read an article about “Graffiti as Fine Art” by journalist Hezi Jiang…. (The article clearly speaks for itself. No explanation necessary.)¹

“On April 2, The New York Times art critic Roberta Smith reviewed another Graffiti artist’s exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, opened a day before ROA’s Metazoa. “Language was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s first artistic language. The words he deftly spray-painted on the walls and buildings of downtown New York in the late 1970s and early ‘80s…were unlike any other graffiti of the time,” Smith wrote at the beginning of the review, acknowledging the graffiti background of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s. Though the show is about his Basquiat’s notebooks and arts on canvas, Smith was aware of the influence of graffiti writings on his later works. In 2013, the hammer came down at $48.8 million for a Basquiat’s painting, Dustheads, at Christie’s auction.”

[File under “Bridge Out Up Ahead!”]

Might Be Time to Read the Prophets

When Fine Art becomes graffiti
In your subway bathroom stalls,
You can take it to the bank, sir,
That the writing’s on the wall.

Might be time to ask Belshazzar
Why his knees began to “smote”²…
Yes, and if he may have insight…
And if that was all she wrote.

Might be time to heed the prophets.
Might be time to seek the light.
Might be time to re-read Daniel
To resist the culture’s blight.

Might be time to ask some questions…
Might be time to crack The Book.
Maybe start with John and Romans.
Might be time to take a look.

Might be time to seek true wisdom…
Might be time to look about.
Might be wise to ask some questions,
Yes, before the time runs out³.

¹ Mark 8: 34-38

² Daniel 5:6

³ 1 Corinthians 7: 29-31