One Man's Art is Another Man's... Aggravation?

The Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine, is a beautiful mile-long path along the rocky edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Ogunquit was known as "beautiful place by the sea" by the Abenaki tribe. This year when we walked along the path, we noticed many interesting cairns, or stacks of rocks, artfully arranged. As I stopped and took some photos, a few others were also standing in the area looking at the rocks. One man came along and began asking a woman in the group if she knew who was responsible for the piles. Were they made as part of a children's project, he asked? When he learned that one man arranges the rocks in this manner, he wanted to know if the man had taken it upon himself to alter the landscape. He seemed to be irritated and upset by the effort. I was surprised that he took such exception to the cairns, but it was a good lesson in remembering that people have differing points of view and perspectives. I considered the stones to be artistic and thought the man who arranged them probably found it a meditative practice. But I could understand that the other observer clearly felt the display disrupted his natural view of the rocks. What are your thoughts?




Having just read the article titled "Guerilla Art Is..." in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, this stone-piling seemed to fit with the concept of unsanctioned public exhibits.




PS- I also learned that cairns like these are sometimes used as trail markers