Graffiti Artist: Banksy

The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

-Banksy

People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly.

-Banksy

"Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it."

-Banksy

"Banksy is a well-known pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s." His artworks are often-satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-rock band, Crass, who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world. Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians."

I just heard about this graffiti artisit and I am amazed by his work. More so, when I was looking for more information about him and found so much uncertainty about where he is from and how he came to be who he is today, I am even more intrigued by his mystery. I am for anyone who does what he loves without being apologetic and one who is true to himself. That is what Banksy is. He really tries to inflict change and thought upon the world around him with his work, not for glorification or fame, but simply for the love and the need.

Banksy Website