Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Arlington cartoonish dog mural, continued.

A few days ago, I mentioned a mural of dogs in Arlington, and the battle over whether it's advertising a business or brightening up the adjacent dog park. Today's Washington Examiner reveals that the artist is Mark Gutierrez. The story says "The mural looks just like her logo," [Zoning administrator] Artman explained. "If you consider that the Mercedes Benz or Lexis logo is not advertising, then I suppose Ms. Houghton is correct."

So let's check that out:

Here's the top of Wag More Dogs website:



Looks like the same artist to me. Whether or not the mural is advertising for the business around the corner? I have no opinion, except that even if it is, I'd rather look at a piece of art than a blank wall. Gutierrez's painting is at least fun.


1 comment:

Mike Rhode said...

Lois of Arlington says (via email, lacking a Google id),

"I agree that it's a lot of fun -- so let her put the Welcome to the dog park message as proposed by the county to make it more a dog park piece than a big advert. That wouldn't detract at all from the art IMO. The county has code to enforce. The solution is so simple. It looks to me like she's just looking for PR by fighting this supposed poor little business-person vs big bad government thing she's claiming. I'm so tired of everyone demonizing anything government."