Tag Archives: Banksy

They Were Just Doing Their Job

Earlier today a new piece of art was unveiled on the side of a building in the London Bridge area of London, UK. At first folks thought that the new piece was a Banksy as it shared his style, but that has proven false due to a statement by Banksy’s PR folks.

Regardless of who painted it, the art piece itself still shares a powerful message just in time for Easter.

The panting, which you all can see below, shows a fairly famous scene in the life of Jesus – one displayed in churches and homes across the globe. It shows Jesus carrying his cross towards the Place of a Skull while being beaten by the officials and laughed at by onlookers.

The only difference between the tradition paintings of this scene and new one is that the officials beating Jesus are UK police officers and the onlookers are modern day paparazzis. A small but powerful change…

You see, all too often we can dismiss the crucifixion of Jesus and the reaction of the people as something that happened long ago – years before our birth. We like to think that if we were there at that time, we would have stood up to the injustice of the time or at least ran away from the act as to not give our support….

Yet, how many of us stand idly by today watching acts of violence on CNN, FoxNews or the BBC? How many of us walk past the very people loved by Jesus – dismissing the homeless, the sick, the poor and the brokenhearted as some else’s problem?

How many of us cheered when we heard about the death of Osama bin Laden while forgetting Jesus’ commandment to love and bless our enemies? How many of us reject the call of the Holy Spirit because we want to live life on our own terms?

Perhaps we should paint our faces on the bodies of the paparazzis or the police officers, all of which were, after all, just doing their jobs…

station of the cross

I Need A Ticket To Bristol

If anyone wants to pony up a few hundred dollars for a plane ticket to Bristol, UK, please let me know. You can just leave a note on this blog and I will contact you. Money mouth

It’s that easy.

Now if you are wondering why I want to go to Bristol all of a sudden, I have one word for you: Banksy.

Yelp. Him.

The world’s most famous graffiti artist is hosting an art show at the Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery. This fact is kind of strange ironic as Bristol was where Banksy first started painting – abet on the side of buildings, bridges or another public structures.

To have the city that chased him for many years host an art show is really, really ironic. And, in a strange way, it is also classic Banksy. Wink[@more@]


You may wonder why I like Banksy so much?

Well, in a nutshell, he has one of the best ironic views on society and western culture. In a lot of ways he is like Terry Pratchett – only instead of words, Banksy uses images.

If you can’t laugh, cry or grimaces at the crazy, screwed up society we are living in…well… I’m sorry. Undecided

Banksy Identity Has Been Discovered (Supposedly)

I almost dropped my cereal bowl.

Here I was innocently flipping through an old Time magazine (give me a break, I was in South America!!) while eating breakfast… out jumps a small phrase: Banksy Identity Has Been Discovered. It was enough to almost make me dropped my cereal bowl and go running for the computer!!  However, with emotions of steel, I waited…. does 5 minutes count? Undecided

Seriously – this is huge.

For about 20 years someone, known only as Banksy, has been creating beautiful pieces of art – abit most of them have been on sides of buildings, walls, and anything else he/she could find (the establishment calls them graffiti).  As time went on, Banksy created a website and started selling framed drawings and paintings (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars).  All this time, the true identity of Banksy was kept a secret (think of how hard that must be!!).

Until July 12th.  

[@more@]On that date, a British newspaper published a story claiming that Banksy is a 34 year old man named Robin Gunningham. The claim (and one that I’m not sure I believe) is based upon a picture of Gunningham in Jamaica with some cans of spray paint at his feet. In addition, the paper said that:

Around 2000, when Banksy moved to London, Gunningham relocated to a flat in Hackney. A number of Banksy’s most famous works have appeared nearby. At that time Gunningham lived with Jamie Eastman, who worked for the Hombre record label – which has used illustrations by Banksy.

 

I don’t know… it could be… or it could be that Gunningham knows Banksy…. or it could be one of those strange life deals….I don’t know… but I do know that Banksy’s agent (yes, he has an agent) is on record stating that Gunningham is not his client (granted that could be a marketing deal).  Oh, I should not that no one has talked or located Gunningham…  [fyi – here's another article about the 'claim']

Personally I hope no one ever finds out Banksy true identity.  

I enjoy his sense of humor and his way of pointing out things that most people could never do. To find out who he/she is would be like unmasking Batman…

 

 

 

 More pictures of Banksy's work can be found here and here.