You Call That Art?

I have to admit that of all of my siblings, I am the one with the least artistic talent. I am not a lover of the fine arts and the pink wedge is the one I try to avoid in Trivial Pursuit. That being said, I sometimes have a hard time appreciating governments attempt to add a little culture in our lives by spending our tax dollars on public art displays.

I walk my dogs every day and Bob and I recently took them to the trail in Redmond Town Center. It's been a long time since we have gone on that path. In the distance we saw what looked like some sort of a sign. There have been "junk art" sculptures there in the past so we debated whether it could be our tax dollars at work.

When we got right up to the object we could see that it was not actually a sign, but it was public art. It's a metal frame with a piece of plexiglass (Lexan) with a blue "translucent" vinyl square in the center. I went home and looked it up and found that the city of Redmond paid $3,000 for it. Does someone evaluate this stuff and see something that I am missing when they buy this stuff or is does the artist know someone who controls the purse strings. Please someone explain to me how that is art???