I must admit that I am irked when I hear phrases such as "In school I wasn't really good because..." While I do grant allowance that some of the sentence structure may be lost in translation. I find it supercilious that the description "clever" can be applied to someone whose statements expose blatant hypocrisy. Periodically individuals in the art world are elevated to a higher status, it is rare that the overnight success that appears in music, or movies applies to a living artist. Somewhere in the gap between the Renaissance and modern times, artists are no longer considered genius, playing into a stereotype that artists are tortured loners, misfits, and outside the boundaries of social convention. Perhaps I should blame Vincent Van Gogh. Yet the conceit that Arnaldo Morales depicts in his narcissistic portrayal of life in the Puerto Rican barrio, where he "became like the mayor." is miniscule compared to the arrogance with which he concludes the first paragraph "I started sculpting. It was really easy for me. But I just didn't really like it." He continues "...one day I started integrating mechanical stuff...I've been doing art all my life." If artistic ability is what is required to fix a broken gadget, or to take apart an object and put it back together, I am grossly under-rating my mechanic, my electrician, and plumber. Art must have a formal intent. Using art as a microscope to expose the unseemly aspects of our nature, in response to a horrific event would be believable, but he negates the impetus by trading anecdotes of his own violent tendencies blowing up a children's toy. While I laud his fortitude, as well as his international following, I believe that he owes far more to a gallery curator or art dealer who has a greater grasp of communication. I suspect that his dismissal of the New York art scene is a response to the dismissal from New York. According to the author Linda Weintrab, Morales inventions are "formally elegant, meticulously crafted, cleverly conceived, and mischievously aggressive." No matter how brightly polished a knife or an aluminum baseball bat, both are found objects, and as tools can be lethal in their application. Whether the artists intent is masochistic, sadistic, or prurient, is of lesser consequence considering that many works of great art are little more than pornographic trope created for the pleasuring of male elite. I do not follow the logic that would lead one to share time with violent people in order to understand their nature. Despite the veneer of civilization, our animal nature is thinly veiled. While humans are less direct in the Darwinian survival of the fittest, we can rest assured that we aren't any more interested in survival of the wealthiest, the most intelligent, or the best looking either. I don't think a titled robotic model is any more effective than a crowded street market or a rousing game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Isn't instilling corporal punishment for a populace at large akin to believing that all men are created in sin. Arnaldo Morales, small minded notion that something applies to everyone or everything is grating, not "everyone" who sees a gun is impressed. I can honestly state that "Wow!" has never been the first response I have uttered when handling a weapon. Assuming that the mantle of artist allows one the ability to not only judge an individual, but to meet a punishment is a presumption larger than that of Daniel Joseph Martinez belief that only evolved artists deal with thoughts that question our purpose. Although the implication of artist as god is at least as old as the self portrait of Paul Gauguin, who established that creation is more akin to godliness than cleanliness. Both Daniel Joseph Martinez and Arnaldo Morales act as provocateurs. Each specifically targets the space with which their work will be displayed, whether to shatter social convention or to merely expose them. Calculated to achieve a response from the viewer seems to be formulae for success, at least if one wants to be included in a textbook as an "artist". As with most contemporary art the passage of time will determine if the hype was merely hyperbole.