Banksy

Ahhh…my loveliest of ladies….how are you today?  Princess Eva, I hope this finds you feeling much better, and Miss Shannon (who will always be a princess to her Auntie Paula, but I worry that you’re getting too old to like being called Princess...you can let me know on that one.  I promise you that when you are an ancient 38 like me, you will delight in it, as long as it comes from someone who loves you.  But from 10 to 25 or so, it may be annoying and I’m willing to respect that).

 

I have returned to NJ and the spectacularly interesting world of obsolete inventory and income statement adjustments.  Sigh.  The high point of my day today was seeing that your GramE has posted her first entry on a blog I made just for her.  It’s not like this one, but I think it’s going to turn out to be very cool.  You should ask her about it, if you’re so inclined.

 

So….a new artist for my lovely nieces.  This week, I choose Banksy (mostly because I’m finding myself desperately short on time and already know a lot about this one AND have a fun picture ready to go).  Banksy is actually a graffiti artist, which makes him somewhat extra interesting.  He usually paints on walls with stencils he makes himself, and most of the time what he’s doing is somewhat-or-a-lot illegal. 

 

In the one on the right below, he took a very ugly wall, and painted a hole in it that you can see a beach through, then painted kids with buckets and shovels coming out of it.  I think that’s super beautiful.  I like that his work is available to anyone who walks by the street where he painted it – it’s not usually sold in some snooty gallery (although sometimes it is) – and everyone can enjoy it.  I think his choices are sometimes very funny.  But then I think how I would feel if it was my business or house or cage (he’s painted things inside enclosures at Zoo’s a few times) that he decided to paint on, and then I think he’s kind of a jerk.

 

At one point he made a replica of Stonehenge (it’s a famous grouping of big rocks – very cool and strange)…but when Banksy did it, he made it out of public toilets instead of rocks.  This amuses me greatly – I am far too old to think toilets are funny, but I don’t care.  Toilets ARE funny.

 

  

 

This is me, doing a replication of a painting of his called “Choose your weapon” (I’m the person on the right – I made the photo in my basement), which includes a dog which is a replication of another artists work.  This also amuses me. 

 

So that’s all I’ve got.  Hope you’re feeling fabulous and enjoying your last week of school!

Know that I love you and think that you’re awesome.

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula