In this week’s Passion Blog, I wanted to look into the topic of street art. When these two words come up, I think of the name Banksy, an English graffiti artist who leaves behind satirical stencils.
The first time I heard about this person was during my sophomore English class. My teacher, in an attempt to show the class how different mediums could be used to advocate something or to get across a message, spent a great amount of time talking about a variety of artists. Thus, my goal today is to look at a few of his works of art that he left behind in various places and try to understand the underlying message.
The first stencil is one what many Banksy fans would recognize. It is the girl with the red, heart-shaped balloon. In a simple glance, you might think that this picture is really simple and just a nice picture. However, there can be a hidden message inside. First of all, notice the words at the right hand side of the photo. It says: “there is always hope”. We can probably infer that the phrase s talking about the picture. The picture is a young girl who has her hand stretched out towards a heart shaped balloon. Notice how the balloon is the only thing that has color. Everything else is black or gray, including the background that the stencil is on. This is drawing attention to it, and perhaps there is a deeper meaning behind this balloon. The red color could mean how important this balloon is. The heart shape can mean a variety of things. It can mean love, trust, innocence, or perhaps dreams. The action that the girl is making is another interesting point to notice. She is reaching out her arm, but it is not clear is she is reaching out to grab at the balloon, or letting it go. This open-ended painting allows for the viewer to try imagining the meaning, and thus gets them to think about the issue at hand. 
http://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/projects/jle/balloon.jpg
The other piece of artwork by Banksy that I wanted to take a look at is the painting about a painting. This one is slightly more humorous and light hearted, though it is still possible to get an underlying meaning out of it. Take a look at the picture below. This painting was snuck into a museum and laughs at the pricing of artwork. As you can see, the artwork with a stick figure drawn on it does not seem to be some sort of fancy piece of art. The amount of money for it would raise eyebrows for some. In fact, even the painting itself agrees, as it is portrayed leaving over the frame and exclaiming, “you have got to be kidding me”. In a way it is kind of funny. There have been some paintings where I was really surprised at how much people are willing to pay for some paintings. Thus, I think this is a perfect representation of the slightly silly art market.
http://artpolitica.com/wp-content/uploads/kiddingme2.jpg
I always thought street art was simple, yet very interesting. When I go to downtown Philly, I often see street art and admire its beauty, yet I never consider the deeper meanings they may be trying to convey. In the stencil with the girl and the heart-shaped balloon, my attention is instantly diverted to the balloon, due to the pop of bright red. I personally think that stencil is symbolic for releasing or letting go of something you love, perhaps even a loved one, but to never lose hope as a result of it. I find the second work you mentioned hilarious just like you, but it boggles my mind that people are willing to pay 10,000 Euros for something my 10 year old brother could have probably sketched. I guess that just goes to show the value of art in our society.
I really like this post because it reminded me of a neighborhood in Miami called Wynwood. Wynwood used to be a place where graffiti artist would go in the middle of the night and do graffiti, that would then be covered by the police the next morning. Because this problem got so out of hand and the police could no longer afford to pain over the excessive amount of graffiti in the walls everyday, they decided to make graffiti legal in Wynwood and today Wynwood is a street-art-neighborhood. Street art always amazes me for two main reasons. First, street art is usually made by people who consider themselves to be outcast of society and therefore they always call attention to problems that the government tend to ignore. Second, street art alway always look somewhat more thoughtful than any other form of art. I mean, yes paintings done by word known painters like Picasso or Van Gogh are extremely detailed, but street artist always take something that might be viewed from a comic perspective and make it serious (like a girl loosing her balloon).