Signs of the Times

From cell phone ads to billboards, in-your-face messaging is an ubiquitous fact of life. We can’t easily escape the daily barrage telling us what to buy, where to go, how to get there and in what kind of footwear. But we can be selective about which messages we heed.

Artist and Personal Power Company member Dan Martin is creating shout outs of a different kind – with street signs. Call it anti-advertising. His neatly printed calls to action (say, “Hope” or “Collaborate”) are designed to stop traffic and make one reassess, if but for a moment, one’s interior trajectory. The gist of the project might be summed up in two pop slogans of the kind being produced and distributed locally: “Lighten Up” and “Do Something.”

Look for the clever directional signs around town, tucked in unexpected places like behind the topiary garden at Frost Park, 9th and Pacific Ave., and in the Power Company’s window at 913 Pacific Ave.

It’s refreshing to see that at the intersection of art and life, there is “Compassion.”