Banksy, Joel, Dog Poop and Graffiti

I'm sitting here killing time waiting on my doctor's appointment. I just went through my blog list and checked out all the interesting people that I follow. Many are artists and their work inspires me and fascinates me. I think I am a psychiatrist at heart because I'm always wondering what makes people do what they do. Why does one person think something is beautiful and another think it's crap?

On that note, I watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop" the other day and it was very intriguing.

It's a film by Banksy.  My son Joel put me on to it. Joel is an artist in his own right and has been following Bansky for years. I'm not sure how true or sincere the film is though it is filmed as a documentary. It's about the world of graffiti artists and considering that the essence of their work requres them to be elusive, I have a feeling that the film itself is that way also. I enjoyed seeing their techniques and I can understand a bit how addictive it must be, the rush of adrenaline the thrill of the tag. I think Bansky must be an absolute genius - even if it was a deliberate plan or not - through his style and presentation - putting his art out as graffiti - he somehow, magically, manipulated people's interest and was able to make street art credible. He got it off the street and into galleries and auctions. Amazing.

In one of my many forays of employment, I was a kennel manager. I hired a guy to work in the kennel and he was from California. He was also a graffiti artist. When Joel was in 3rd or 4th grade, he would come to work after school and hang out with this artist and he taught Joel about graffiti. I remember him teaching Joel about graffiti letters on the dry erase board we had to list the animals medications. I would take up some of his slack so he could spend more time with Joel. For some reason, I felt that their meeting was important.

I have always been fascinated with graffiti myself and many times as a family, we would take drives into Atlanta just to find graffiti. One of our favorite things to do is to be caught by a train, we sit back and enjoy the moving gallery. There was (and is) an excitement watching the cars go by that stems from my belief that God gave talents and gifts to people and that sometimes "greatness" is not seen by the whole world. We can discover it around us, everyday. We would sit excitedly, thinking that perhaps we would see a piece of art created by one of the greatest artists in the world - it's just that the world doesn't know about them and maybe never will - but we saw it!

Joel's art has grown and evolved, but I think its root and the beginnings of Joel's love of art began in his love of graffiti. I guess Joel will have to confirm that or not. So, what do you think, Joel? And I like to think that my cleaning out those extra cages so Joel could have more time with his teacher helped encourage his work - of which I am very proud!

If you're in Mississippi, go see Joel's work this Saturday.