change of mind: banksy street art

i at this point have made a complete rotation on my oppoinos of banksy and his stencil pieces throughout the world. i have also seen his documentary 4 times now and have read his book at least three times. when i first watched the movie i really liked the idea of "art for the people" or taking it out of the gallery and onto the streets. i had always liked graffiti before and this was another form that i did not know anything about. so at this point i just took in as much of Banksy and Shepard Fairey as i . I looked through their websites bought their books and learned as much as i could. i loved all the street art and loved the style, so much that i started making my own stencils. after the second viewing and learning more about the artists more as people along with some not so great characteristics about i found myself straining to enjoy their work to the point that i once did. it was a case of meeting my hero and being let down without ever meeting my hero. it was things that they weren't even doing, things like people taking down their art by removing the entire wall it is on and selling it for ludicrous amounts of money. i did not like the art market taking over street art. Then i learned about different rivalries that were going on between different artists. for example there was a supposed rivalry between artist King Robbo, one of the pioneers of London's graffiti writers VS. Banksy the stencil artists.  the human side was off putting to the idealistic nature that i had put on their art. after straying away from the graffiti art for awhile. i didn't really concern myself with their art for awhile. then i watched the Banksy film for the third time. i started to look past the human side of the art. i starting looking at only the art. i was able to separate the art from the artist and didn't let one affect the other. this allowed me to look at the art without any filters. i didn't automatically say i liked it because i recognized the artist. i didn't say that i hated because it wasn't my favorite artist. i was able to comment and find an opinion that was only about the art. this is a skill that has gone past the graffiti and street art as well. to separate things and look at the layers of something and not at the flattened image. this has allowed me to come full circle and enjoy banksy and the multitude of street artist from around the world all over again.

King Robbo VS. Banksy