Graffiti Pit

* Ah, the irony of it all. With great interest I read “Cleanup Caper” (Jan. 22), concerning the un- authorized “vandalism” of the previously colorful Venice Graffiti Pit. In vain I waited for the insight that seemed so elementary. Let’s see: If you paint a colorful tag without permission, that’s art. But if you paint a large block of a single color in the same place, it’s not?

Some of us see the Venice painting not as graffiti removal, but as a giant monochromatic tag painted with a rather wide brush--an ambitious undertaking that moves the art of graffiti to a new and Dadaist plane.

MARK G. LINDEMANN

Van Nuys

* I was walking in Venice the other day, when someone threw a small bag of trash out of a car window. Angrily I picked up the bag and threw it into a nearby trash can. I was arrested for suppressing free expression and violating that person’s 1st Amendment rights.

DANIEL HORTON

Chino Hills