For some time now, ugly electrical boxes in certain parts of Jacksonville, Florida were being painted by an anonymous artist who called himself Keith Haring’s Ghost. I always enjoyed coming across this delightful work. It brightened up things that were otherwise nothing but eyesores and places for people to glue advertisements.
Frankly, Jacksonville suffers from an appalling lack of public art, and that’s a shame. But it surprises me not at all. Art is something that you can’t control. It might express opinions that you don’t agree with. It refuses to conform. And in an ultra-conservative enclave like Jacksonville, that must be one terrifying concept. We can’t have artists going all willy nilly and acting all liberal, now, can we?
Case in point, the thought police have tracked down this artist, whose name turns out to be Kevin Southworth, and he has been arrested. He’s facing 5 years in jail and a $5,000.00 fine. I cannot believe that the city has nothing better to do than hound someone who wants nothing more than to bring beauty to our neighborhoods.
City of Jacksonville, shame on you.
For More:
Video: Man arrested in graffiti art tribute
In depth article: Who’s Afrad of keith Haring’s Ghost?
The View from a Drawbridge 
I saw one of these boxes, and thought it was pretty cool. I also know we have rules to live by. Since the City of Jacksonville has commissioned Mr. Southworth before, why not this new canvas.
Cities like Ocala and Albuquerque and I’m sure dozens of others have murals commissiond from local artist. Also, private business owners. It is all good as long as the proper steps are followed so the average Joe and Joann’s rights are not infringed upon, and even if they are, well if the City says it’s okay, it is. In TN, everyonce in awhile they use up the old paint and repaint the fire hydrants. Yellow, green whatever. I used to love our little town 35 years ago the bridges were Powder Blue, Pink and Yellow. But then they painted them all a dark green and destroyed the charm. Now they are all concrete overpass type bridges and if you don’t look out the window you don’t know you are on a bridge. And in some cases looking out your window you see concrete instead of water. Can you imagine not being able to see the beauty of the water and bridges in Jacksonville? I say put beauty wherever it will bring a smile, but do the paperwork first.
Yes, you’re right in that he should have obeyed the law, but the thing is, in this conservative town, that would mean we’d have no art whatsoever. Something has to change.
The problem is that not everybody who paints stuff like that is as good as everybody else… and it is hard to get people to agree on what they like… so you really do have to keep control of it. It can get out of hand.
There is that.
Everything would be covered in paint… here it would mostly be gang sign graffiti
An old friend of mine painted all over the memorial for fallen officers, he thought if he felt that way everyone else must. He had a right to make a point. NO!. HE is no longer a friend. My Grandfather and My Son were Police Officers, good men. But in his warped mind, a traffic ticket, gave him the right to spew Pig and Deserved to Die on what some consider hallowed ground. I would be just as upset if he had painted flowers and angels.
I’d definitely never condone defacing a memorial. That’s disrespectful and cruel.
I agree with you. In Philadelphia we had graffiti all over everything for many years. Finally, some wise person cleaned up the city from the graffiti and gathered all the artists and commissioned them to create murals. We now have true art on sides of buildings throughout our neighborhoods reflecting the history of our city. They actually conduct tours for people to enjoy the art and the meaning within. So beautiful and an amazing idea.
Yes it is. Jacksonville definitely needs more of that. More public art would greatly improve this place.