Does anyone remember "Banksy"? Someone did a play about Banksy's work being sold at auction for a huge sum earlier this year. Banksy is a graffiti artist who creates public art with wry social and political commentary. He doesn't sell his pieces, but some people who've owned the buildings he's graffiti-ed have sold the wall on which he has created his work. Apparently he created fake pound notes replacing the queen's picture with Princess Diana's face and changed "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England" and then threw the notes into a crowd of people at a fair. Now the notes are being sold for two hundred pounds (each)! If you haven't seen any of his work, look in Google because it looks great and is quite provocative (two good things in visual art, I think). Should art be "for sale"? If it isn't, how does an artist make a living? I think art should be available to everyone (hence, no charge to come and see our shows if you can't pay -- but PLEASE, pay if you can, because we need the dough!) but it is a dilemma when we live in a society that requires that people make a living.
He created this great piece called "Spy Booth" with three trench-coated secret agents surrounding a phone booth (I wonder how many phone booths are left!) -- look it up -- it's really film noire-ish. The owner of the wall said he was going to try to have it removed and sold, and now it's been graffit-ed itself! It's a bit ironic and I wonder what Banksy himself thinks of it. But certainly the graffiti that covers "Spy Booth" is not as interesting or artistic as Banksy's work.
It's August! One more month of freedom (I hope it's only a month). I'm sure some of you heard the government is going to pay people who have children under the age of thirteen forty dollars a day if we are not back in school in September. I confess I didn't sleep last night. It appears the government is willing to pay anybody but teachers. I keep thinking I can't get any more disheartened than I am already, but it keeps getting worse. On a bright note, the weather's great and the berries are ripening and I'm going to pick blackberries today which are healthy candy, they're so sweet!
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