Enter Through the Anteroom

"Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colors and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall -- it's wet."

-Banksy (Wall and Piece)

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Inspiration.

Sometimes inspiration is something you really dig deep down for. A lot of artists do it. Maybe they dwell in their bedroom for days, cultivating all their pent-up emotions until finally, they throw all of that happiness or sadness or anger or frustration or peacefulness or chaos out onto a canvas, or into a short video, or a sculpture. Whatever the idea, substance is pulled from within.

But what about inspiration from, for lack of a better term.. without?

"Banksy," a British street artist from the Bristol Underground, gathers his inspiration not from his own sentiments, but those of the public. A "vandalism vigilante" of sorts, his works are often satirical outcries of dissent that otherwise go unspoken.

The world is a giant canvas at his disposal, and no rules of society have yet managed to stop him. His works appear on rooftops, on buildings, inside zoo exhibits, along sidewalks; his supporters are always on the lookout for the next Banksy painting, snapping pictures quickly before the police are called to clean it up.






















Every piece is done in a characteristic stencil-art style, many making use of existing structures, signs and environments as well.


















His most popular paintings take the form of a rat, a perfect representation of his style: perceived as dirty,  useless, and unwanted, graffiti is the rat of the art world.

"I'd been painting rats for three years before someone said, 'That's clever it's an anagram of art,' and I had to pretend I'd known that all along."

Other than the ephemeral (this is for you, Dr. Housefield) attractions Banksy spreads from city wall to city wall, he has been the main attraction of several exhibitions, as well as the author of five self-published books and the director of a highly-rated documentary that made its debut this year at the Sundance Festival -- Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film.

Of course, as a safety measure, his true identity has yet to be revealed. But that's of no major concern:

"I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being 'good at drawing' doesn't sound like Banksy to me." 

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Interested in more Banksy? Visit his website at http://www.banksy.co.uk. For more cynical quotes and quips, wander over to http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/28811.Banksy.