Day 85 - August 7, 2010 - Graffiti as Art?

"In the dime stores and bus stations, people talk of situations, read books, repeat quotations, draw conclusions on the wall." -Bob Dylan

Living near Los Angeles, I've seen a lot of graffiti over the years. Some of it is pretty trashy; a bunch of bright yellow lines intended to be a name or obscene word/gesture that, frankly, looks like nothing but a bunch of tangled lines. Other graffiti can look rather intriguing. I've often though to myself that if some taggers would look in to graphic design as a career, they might be relatively successful.

An artist that I was recently introduced to has made it his/her mission to make statements on walls. The artist is known by the name of Banksy and is supposedly from Great Britain. The artist maintains anonymity, but has left hundreds of marks around the world. Some of them are beautiful, others make a statement, and many are just plain bizarre.

I know this isn't particularly amazing artwork. It looks like stencil painting to me. I stumbled across it while walking around Young Hall around 7:30 AM today. I never knew it was there. It struck me as random. I wonder who did it? Certainly not Banksy... but it sure would be cool if Banksy DID tag one of our school walls!