Famous Flickrite Thomas Hawk posed that question on his blog today. He has posted two images, one is a painting in a well known art museum, the other was found on a building in the street. He is taking votes and will reveal the answer tomorrow, but I encourage everyone to examine their position on the topic and chime in.

Personally I think that art can only be declared by the creator and what his or her (or I guess Elephant as well now) intention was behind it. If something is created to express a feeling, emotion or message then it clearly is art. However if the piece was done solely to capture reality, well unless the reality delivers a message or feeling, it may not be art. Sometimes the message or emotion is only perceived by the artist. I feel strongly that it is only graffiti anyway when the canvas is someone else’s property.

I wouldn’t want either on my wall, but I think the bottom one (blue) is the graffiti. There are distinct shapes that I see in it resembling the remnants of a “graffiti” like typography.