Friday, August 29, 2003
NEW YORK - A Republican City Councilman said a graffiti-inspired mural that presidential candidate Howard Dean used as a backdrop for a campaign speech in Manhattan was "offensive" and "narrow-minded."
"Maybe in your world, graffiti vandals are artists," Staten Island Councilman James Oddo wrote in a letter to Dean's campaign on Thursday. "In New York City - and in the real world - they are criminals who destroy our quality of life."
Dean, the former Vermont governor, commissioned the backdrop by graffiti artist Keo for a Tuesday night rally in Manhattan's Bryant Park that ended a national tour.
Eric Schmeltzer, a spokesman for Dean's campaign, said Keo is "a very well-known, respected artist."
"Anybody who criticizes a politician for giving an artist space to express himself is out of touch with American values of free expression - especially the culture that exists in cities," Schmeltzer told the Daily News.
The Bloomberg administration apparently agreed with Oddo's complaints.
"It's unfortunate that Mr. Dean would promote and romanticize a form of vandalism, especially considering this city's success in eliminating this urban blight," said Edward Skylar, a spokesman for Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The artist Keo, whose real name is Blake Lethem, disputed that graffiti is vandalism.
"The vandals were an ancient tribe that used to run through countries, plundering and pillaging," he told The New York Times. "I don't do that. That's what the Republicans are doing. I try to beautify my surroundings. I may fall short of that goal, but at least I'm trying."