I’d like to address a comment to the art galleries of Colorado City, if I may, including Ms. Nose-in-the-Air who is so put off by the new graffiti mural adorning the West Side Tattoo shop.

Whereas you may frown upon graffiti and its urban origins, I feel compelled to point out: ain’t none of you dealing in fine art.

After a comprehensive, if hasty, search of Colorado Avenue, I can say with the authority of my ordinary education, that every last one of you merchants are selling kitsch, whether to the tourists or to the Mountain Shadows bourgeoisie. Where then do you come off calling somebody else low-brow?

One could suggest, to the converse, that graffiti born of the urban plight might embody artistic expression a little more than say, air-brushed wolves.

You dealers may feel validated in your line of work in a year when over-blown glass chotchkes by Chihuly TM pass themselves off for masterpieces at the Fine Art Center. But they are not, and your lovely stuff is not, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Pleasing to the eye, warming to the heart, is fine enough for art, don’t you think? For people a little different than you, tattoos and graffiti are every bit that too.