Sometimes I feel like a stereotype since I am a Chinese person living in Chinatown in a building called Confucius Plaza.  But everyday outside this apartment building lies a statue of the man himself, Confucius. I suppose because it’s one of those things you see everyday while commuting, you don’t consciously designate it as “art.”  It is art in the literal sense as some artist had to use their talent and sculpt the statue but there is also symbolic meaning in having his statue and name as part of the Confucius apartment complex. He espouses many of the traditional Chinese family values like reverence to elders and strong family loyalty. The fact that is a statue of him in another country after a few thousand years passed speaks great testament to how important art is – art lasts long many years after kings and governments are no more.

One common posters I encounter on the subway is the “if you see something, say something” sign. It’s everywhere in the subways, perhaps more so after September 11. In a way, even common signs are art if you think about it. Art is anything that expresses or applies human creative skill or imagination. This picture is somewhat jarring since there aren’t any people around and there’s this lone bag that seems out of place. Someone from the MTA had to come up with a creative way to get people to be wary and proactive about potential dangers in the subway. This picture along with the red all caps lettering “BE SUSPICIOUS OF ANYTHING UNATTENDED” gets the job done.

Last but not least is a statue of Bernard Baruch himself located in the entrance of Baruch College. Statues and sculptures are good forms of art to commemorate an individual. Though many pass by this statue everyday, I wonder how many have googled his name to see what he did or the type of person he was to have been important enough to have a college named after him. I like this type of art, having him sitting on a bench, almost like  you could have been politely chatting with him. It is not in your face by having a giant standing statue of him in the lobby but rather subtle and allows those interested to ask why was this art created.

**Used pictures from internet since cellphone camera was frozen.