Artsy Fartsy Wednesday ~ BLU

Last Wednesday I covered Banksy, a graffiti artist from the UK. Today I will be covering another graffiti artist known as BLU from Argentina. What's different about this graffiti artist is that he animates his graffiti...

Reader of this blog: "Whoa, wait! Did you just say he animates his graffiti?"

Dan: "Why yes I did, reader of this blog, yes I did."

Reader of this blog: "How?"

Dan: "Here, take a look at this video"

Warning: Due to the surrealistic nature of this video, it may contain images that may be disturbing to some. Not recommended for young children.

MUTO is the name of that animation. It won an Animated Block Party award for original design in July of 2008. The Animation Block Party is an annual event that started in 2004 in New York city. I saw a commercial recently that looks very much like this animation. I don't know if it was done by BLU or if it is a rip-off of his work. I can't remember what the ad was for since I don't watch a whole lot of TV. Someone let me know it they see it. This is going to be a short post today since there isn't much more to say. See you tomorrow!

Artsy Fartsy Wednesday ~ Take it to the Banksy

I never paid much attention to graffiti art until I learned about a man from Bristol who is known only as Banksy. Not much else is known about this man. He wants to remain anonymous. Many sources claim they have learned his identity, but it's hard to know who is right. He wants his work to be seen, but he does not want to be seen. He is not doing his artwork for himself. He wants to use his art to make people laugh, make people think, and to make a statement. Much of his work is satirical including topics such as culture and ethics. It's very different from most graffiti art. He uses stencils and he often uses the environment as a part of his work. Since I don't know much about the man I won't spend a whole lot of time talking about him. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I will talk about how I found out about Banksy. One day I was listening to the Mars Hill Bible Church podcast. Mars Hill is where Rob Bell teaches and gives his messages. He started talking about a guy named Banksy and was showing the congregation some of Banksy's work. There was a lot of laughter coming from the crowd and from Rob. Since it was an audio podcast I had no idea what was going on. So I hopped online to see what all the noise was about. And this is what I saw:

Oh, poor Thomas.


I thought the guy and the scaffolding was real at first.


There's something very Looney Tunes-ish about this one.


I guess even the earliest artwork ever discovered
could be considered graffiti. By the way, does this
picture depict anti-graffiti graffiti?


A good example of how Banksy uses the environment
in his work.


Does it smell like wet dog or wet paint?


Claude Monet's famous painting "Japanese foot-bridge
over the water-lily pond in Giverny".


Banksy's version of it.


Awesomness.


Unfortunate, but so true.

Check out Banksy's website here. Some of the content on his site is NOT suitable for children, just a warning. Come back tomorrow for Deep Thought Thursday. Have a nice Day!