Banksy

Considering I have written my essay about street art with a focus on the British artist Banksy in a more broad sense, i though that i would write a blog post about some more specific aspects that i enjoy. When i first saw a piece of Banksy's work in grade 11 media arts class, the designated project was to find an artist that influences you and create an artwork in the desired artist's style. Unfortunately Banksy was introduced to me by my fellow classmate who had already claimed him for his project which prohibited me from also using him as my influence. However, my feelings towards him did not change simply because i wasn't able to choose him as my inspiration. The first artwork of his that i saw was the bandanna protester throwing a bouquet of flowers. My initial though was that something was wrong with this picture, but i liked it. It looked at that image for a while, forming different ideas as to why such an angry looking silhouette would be throwing a colourful bouquet of flowers. Was it supposed to be a photoshop joke? Is this guy famous somehow? Who is he even throwing the flowers at? I was faced with competing ideas and it wasn't until i looked at other pieces of his street art that made me understand what kind of person Banksy was. Seeing all of the graffiti initially made me think that he was some sort of hooligan going around London tagging walls. I think it was all of his rat stencils that really made me appreciate his works because of the lack of visual appeal that he was presenting to the public with these rats. To Banksy, it isn't about crowd pleasing, but instead it is about making people think. That is what i like the most about Banksy and all of his magnificent street art.