WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. Art Lessons Last week you had an article in your music section on Thara Memory ["Music from Memory," April 22, 1999] and your cover story ["Scrawl of the Wild," April 21, 1999] was on graffiti. There could be no greater contrast. You see, graffiti isn't art, it is vandalism. There is no discipline, no craft, or talent. I am a trumpet student of Thara. While he is a wild man on stage, as a teacher, he makes sure you know the basics. You don't try to play like he plays! A couple of my lessons I spent playing one note. Those lessons were to teach me several things. It teaches me discipline and it teaches me patience. It is something you need if you are going to be a trumpet player because the trumpet is the hardest of all instruments you can learn. Graffiti is not art but its opposite, the destruction of art, another kind of art, architectural design. Anyone can take a spray can and scrawl their name or a fuzzy picture. That does not make them an artist. Just like in about a short time anyone can pick up a horn and make a loud noise. That was my first lesson with Thara. I thought I was playing music. He told me otherwise, that wasn't music, that was noise! So he had me play a single note and play it softly and play it to the best of my ability. At the end, he praised me saying: "Now that is music." But I couldn't get cocky because he said: "You've got a long ways to go and don't try to fake me out again, I won't stand for it." Sometimes I try to play or do something with my horn I see him doing, like dancing with his horn, but he slaps me down saying I am not ready for that since I haven't perfected the music part yet. The people who take a can of paint and start spraying could be considered noise makers but it is worse than that. They are vandalizing somebody's work of art. They have not learned about architectural design. In that art field form follows function. The graffiti vandal sees a blank wall and to him it is a place to scrawl his name. But if you know how to design buildings and know the rule of form follows function, what is the purpose of a blank wall? It is to separate the human art from the natural art, or to design different uses of space such as living and work space. You need blank walls in the art form of architectural design just as you need rests in music. Now the type of buildings these vandals attack, warehouses and factories do have a beauty of their own. Nowhere is the rule of form follows function more strictly enforced. A warehouse essentially is a big box designed to hold little boxes. The genius of the architect is in the unlimited number of designs he can create upon this simple theme. That is not to say a blank wall could not be the canvas for a great work of art. There are many great wall murals around the city, but those artists didn't learn or start their craft by sneaking about in the dark of night destroying somebody else's artwork. The graffiti vandals claimed these buildings are ugly. That still does not give the right to paint their name over it. For instance, I hate Picasso! I hate him with a passion. Does that give me the right to touch up one of his paintings with an image of my own because they are so ugly. No. But even if the architect is truly untalented, does it give me the right to improve upon his canvas. No. For the artist learns from both the great and the incompetent. They do not wish to create art, they wish to destroy and vandalize. They hope to get away with what would be a shameful act by claiming to be artists. And you, by allowing them this claim, can be the cause of even more widespread destruction of art both good and bad. The fact is because of their hatred, they don't even fall into the lowest status of artist--student. For instance, I don't care for the music of Miles Davis. But that may change. The reason I am a student is that I barely know the basics. But I do know Miles' music on the horn and the work he did advance in jazz in a direction no other trumpet player did. When I am more musically advanced, I will be able to understand the thinking behind his music. Then I will probably be able to appreciate Miles Davis. I am at the point where I admit I don't know what is great art musically but I am willing to learn. And to extend that to all art forms. Painting teaches me harmony, how if one can blend colors, one can blend musical notes. Architectural design teaches about structure just as a symphony must have structure. So if necessary I can paint and I can build because I took the time to know other art forms. The graffiti vandals don't know any art so destroy and vandalize rather than create. That is why they aren't artists and never can be. Someone who destroys cannot be greater than someone who creates. It takes discipline to create. I have to practice every day! Thara has to practice the basics every day! That takes discipline. They have no discipline. It takes years to create a work of art. It takes years to build your talent to be an artist of even modest craftsmanship. It takes only a few seconds to destroy somebody else's artwork. When you have learned the basics, when you have the discipline, when you have spent years perfecting your craft, then and only then do you have the right to sign your name to a work of art. But it has to be your own artwork, not somebody else's. Kirk Reeves Southwest Morrison Street Save Yourself Nigel Jaquiss, in his article "Save the Earth--Visit the Dentist" (April 21, 1999), urges your readers to visit Dr. Craig Howe, a dentist who purchased a mercury separator to collect the "toxic waste products" and "hazardous waste" from his business that would flow into the city's sewage system. He is anticipating such separators will eventually be mandated and "It is the right thing to do." The toxic waste products which are a concern to Dr. Howe and the City are the bits and pieces of mercury amalgam dental fillings being removed from and/or implanted in patients' mouths. I suggest Mr. Jaquiss, or any of your other environmental/health reporters, take a few minutes to research on the Internet at www.altcorp.com/amalgam.htm and look at the list of peer-reviewed medical studies listed which show that mercury fillings release mercury into body tissues. The mercury exposes us to central nervous system damage; is found in fetuses and breast milk of women with such fillings; affects human fertility; creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria; and suppresses the immune system. It is a good thing Dr. Howe's separator is keeping this toxic material out of our waterways, but when is the FDA, ADA, ODA or the Oregon Legislature going to mandate that this very same material not be implanted in the human mouth? My suggestion for a headline for your next article is: Save Yourself--Visit a Mercury-Free Dentist. Sandra Duffy Lake Oswego No Port In A Storm An environmentally friendly Port of Portland ["Mission Impossible?" WW, April 21, 1999]? I attended their open house April 21 and came away dismayed. The Port is still pushing deepening the Columbia River channel to 43 feet, widening Marine Drive, dredging the Willamette and building an additional runway at the airport. Even the one environmentally beneficial proposal that I saw, light rail to the airport, comes at the price of the development of the last vacant land in the area. The Port of Portland may be calling themselves green, but that is not what I saw. They are still trying to develop every plot of land they can as they encourage more people to move to Portland in their bid to turn Portland into an overpopulated, sprawling metropolis. I will only consider the Port to have turned green when they judge a project not by how much land it paves, but by how the project decreases congestion on our highways, increases the number of salmon spawning in the Metro area and increases the number of days Mount Hood is visible. Jeff Fryer Southwest Idaho Street Life Without Bill I was saddened when I found out in today's issue of Willamette Week that Bill Gallagher was "canned" at radio station KEWS [Scoreboard, April 28, 1999]. I have been a regular listener and fan of The Bill Gallagher Show ever since I first discovered it a couple of years ago. I have found the show to be topical, informative and a great relief for those of us who find ourselves a little to the left of center. I listened to his show often--the only talk-radio show on the air for which I could tell you the schedule--and KEWS would often still be the station on the car radio the next time I got in. But no more. Without The Bill Gallagher Show, I have no reason to listen to KEWS. Generally speaking, talk radio is not my style. And NPR is a much better source for news and information, even though KEWS promotes itself as a news station. I have to wonder this: If this station would fire a talk-show host because his opinions are not consistent with those of the other (national) talk-radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, how can I trust that this bias will not carry over into their news coverage, regardless of its seemingly objective reporting? The Bill Gallagher Show was a breath of fresh air. Bill would generally bring up a topic by expressing his own opinion, which I found to be generally either leaning a little to the left, or perhaps a little to the right. Then he would take calls. Bill's callers displayed a diversity that could not be found anywhere else in talk radio. Some agreed with him, and some did not. Like these callers, I sometimes agreed and sometimes not. A distinguishing characteristic of Bill Gallagher's style was his ability to play devil's advocate, pushing callers to question how they arrived at the opinions they held, even when they agreed with him. He never looked for blind followers. He wanted people to reason, doubt, arrive at their own conclusions and know how they reached those conclusions. Unlike on most other call-in radio shows, I always sensed that Bill treated his callers with respect, regardless of their views. I can't wait until another station picks up his show. Until then, I'll have an unprogrammed tuner button on my stereo. Sean Lewis West Linn   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published May 5, 1999