“The ‘Earth’ without ‘art’ is just ‘eh’” is a saying that seems to be popping up in the realm of social media almost daily. In the modern world and its eclectic issues, art is one of the few escapes gifted to society, and the hopeful “artist” uses this phrase to reinforce the importance of creativity and color in a world that exhibits so many “eh” moments. However, the creator of this street art argues that this social media fad is not as insightful as one should think, and rather counterproductive to the goal of artists as a whole. The choice of color, the characteristics of the men, and the use of the font and frame all establishes the concept that the overused saying is not helpful to artists, and is even changing society’s idea of art as a whole.

Color, and the choice of color, have always played a big role in the arts. However, there is a major factor in vandalism and street art that affect these norms. For these “criminals”, time is a factor, and stenciling (a popular form of street art that is used for this piece) usually limits the artist to a small number of colors. However, the tastelessness of white, dark grey, and black are more than purposeful. Whenever the phrase “The ‘Earth’ without ‘Art’ is just ‘Eh’” is posted onto someone’s social media timeline, a diverse, almost tacky set of colors are doodled to inspire the viewer to appreciate and make art. Limiting the saying to such dull, dark colors takes away the lighthearted happiness and actually urges for realization of the falsity of the phrase. The artist also wants to show the viewer the motto’s true self, and that without the tacky, bright colors, the saying simply is not worthy of being art any more than a grain of sand. One of the elements of the image extremely affected by the use of color are the characteristics of the two men holding the frame.

Below the framed motto, two men are depicted focusing on removing or placing the image on the wall. Even with visual art’s ability to let the reader choose whether the men are placing or removing the frame, the men’s dullness are equivalent to the painting they hold. Both characters share the same lifeless color scheme with the framed letters, showing some kind of connections between the two, and implying that the men are trying to hang up the image. Also, the men’s faces are mostly covered, and their partially shown expressions resemble zombie-like qualities. Similar to how the saying in the frame is quite limiting instead of inspiring and how it degrades the standards of art to something as simple as a few letters, the characteristics of the men seem to reflect that same degradation by the use of some dehumanizing details. This only adds to the argument that the phrase they hold up is far more counterproductive than inspiring. This same argument is also supported through the characteristics and use of the stale font and frame. 

The image being held up by the two men is the most important feature depicted on the wall. It holds the frame, a similar color scheme, and the actual phrase that the whole image revolves around. These aspects, again, lead toward the counter-productivity of the saying. Unlike the doodles seen on social media, the font of the phrase in the image is quite militaristic. Because of worldly views that relates art to a liberal flow, and not regimented and somewhat limiting, this font serves as a visual oxymoron. Using this font plays a strong role towards satirizing the saying, and again displays the phrase’s true self. The militaristic font urges for the realization of the fact that reposting the inspirational saying is different from genuinely creating art, and therefore negatively affects art’s standards. The frame itself is a structure that surrounds and encloses the saying, which largely represents the concept of limitation. This thin, black frame is literally connected to the dull-faced men, presumably holding up the uninteresting image. The idea of a border, especially in street art, could easily represent the harmful, confining effects of the phrase.

The ironic barrenness of “The ‘Earth’ without ‘art’ is just ‘eh’” is shown by the bland color, characterless men, and the use of the font and frame. All of these elements show the true nature of the phrase and lead to the fact that it is counter-productive to the goal at hand, which is to inspire the viewer to beautify the Earth and save it from the “eh” that the modern world is doomed for. This hackneyed phrase that fills social media only hurts art as a whole. The street artist illustrates a purposeful tastelessness to reinforce the fact that telling people to make art is different from truly making art. To think that this drained set of words is equal to art simply devalues thousands of years of art in the making. Therefore, it is crucial to understand that creativity is what makes art so special. The expression itself is just “eh”, and it simply will not benefit art.