Art is not my gift. While I have, on occasion, been able to draw rather well, it's not something that comes naturally or easily to me. My talents fall more in the fields of writing, sarcasm, and hitting the snooze button on my alarm.
Back in September, I spent a day at Queen Mary University's "Freshers Week". Schools here don't use terms like freshmen, senior, etc., but they do refer to new students as 'freshers'. The week leading up to the first day of classes is packed with events and activities to acclimate new students to their school and help them make friends. The day that I went to Queen Mary, a free spray painting/graffiti tutorial was being held. My friends and I were grouped up, taught how to properly use the cans of spray paint, and given a board to graffiti. Our art didn't quite turn out as we had planned.
Back in September, I spent a day at Queen Mary University's "Freshers Week". Schools here don't use terms like freshmen, senior, etc., but they do refer to new students as 'freshers'. The week leading up to the first day of classes is packed with events and activities to acclimate new students to their school and help them make friends. The day that I went to Queen Mary, a free spray painting/graffiti tutorial was being held. My friends and I were grouped up, taught how to properly use the cans of spray paint, and given a board to graffiti. Our art didn't quite turn out as we had planned.
Fortunately, the guy who was teaching the class was able to help us clean our board up a bit (after we made him guess what it was supposed to say).
While "graffiti artist" is probably not a viable future career for me, there is one person in England who can sell his work for tens of thousands of dollars...or at least, he could if anybody knew who he was. Since the early 90s, an elusive figure known only as "Banksy" has been leaving his mark across London and the rest of the world. Nothing is known about him: how old he is, where he's from, his name, or even if he's a single person or a team of people. His work appears randomly, without warning. Typically, his paintings are antiwar, anti-capitalism, or otherwise politically or socially driven.
While his fame can certainly be attributed to the provocative nature of his work to an extent, his anonymity also adds to the allure. There's something exciting about a street-artist-turned-social-justice-warrior. His arrest has been called for on multiple occasions in multiple countries, but to no avail.
Even though his paintings have popped up in cities all over the world (followed by confirmation on his official website that he is actually the artist, to distinguish himself against copycats), by far the largest number have appeared in England. Bristol in particular is home to most of Banksy's paintings, leading many people to conclude that it is his hometown.
In addition to paintings, Banksy has also dabbled in a few other styles of art. He once created a statue of a phone booth with a pickaxe driven through it (not really sure what message he was going for there), built an imitation Stonehenge out of port-a-potties, and even did one exhibition which involved painting on live animals.
Even though his paintings have popped up in cities all over the world (followed by confirmation on his official website that he is actually the artist, to distinguish himself against copycats), by far the largest number have appeared in England. Bristol in particular is home to most of Banksy's paintings, leading many people to conclude that it is his hometown.
In addition to paintings, Banksy has also dabbled in a few other styles of art. He once created a statue of a phone booth with a pickaxe driven through it (not really sure what message he was going for there), built an imitation Stonehenge out of port-a-potties, and even did one exhibition which involved painting on live animals.
Most Banksy paintings have been removed, covered up, painted over, or defaced by other graffiti artists, so your chances of actually seeing one are pretty low. A few have been covered in perspex, which protects the painting itself but doesn't stop other street artists from just spray painting over the perspex. The paintings that have been saved have sometimes been sold for upwards of £30,000, with his Space Girl and Bird selling at a whopping £288,000.
My first encounter with what may or may not have even been a Banksy painting was back in September. I was out with some friends in Wood Green (which has hosted a Banksy in the past) when we came across this massive mural:
My first encounter with what may or may not have even been a Banksy painting was back in September. I was out with some friends in Wood Green (which has hosted a Banksy in the past) when we came across this massive mural:
I'm not sure if this is genuinely a Banksy being tongue-in-cheek, or if it was done by a copycat. I'm gonna go with real though, partly because his telltale rat was in the bottom corner, and partly because it makes for a better story. The mural has since been painted over, by the way.
The next time I came across a Banksy painting was completely by accident. After our weekly staff meeting at Warren Street, I walked to a coffee shop known as The Workshop to buy a bag of coffee for my brother-in-law for Christmas. As I was making my way back to the tube station, guided by Google Maps, I turned a corner and came face-to-face with one of his better known works. The painting itself is protected by perspex, but the perspex has been heavily tagged.
Since then, I've come across two more Banksy paintings, both of which I intentionally sought out. Like seeing a national monument for the first time, there's something a little surreal about physically encountering a painting that previously I had only ever seen images of online.
Like reading a banned book, it's been fun to find illicit artwork. From the controversial messages to the fact that all of his works have been painted without permission from the building owners, there's just something exciting and edgy about Banksy. Maybe while I'm here, he'll unveil a new painting or host another exhibition. If he does, I'm sure there will be a huge media uproar over it. And I'm sure he'll hate it.