Research: Banksy

In class this week we started watching a movie called Exit Through Thee Gift Shop about a street artist named Banksy. He is an anonymous artist and nobody knows who he is or what he looks like. His ideas are so creative and he has such a different concept of art than the average artists out there. After watching part of the movie it made me want to learn more about Banksy and see what he is doing now.

His graffiti career started in 1990 when he joined a group called DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ). While with them he focused mostly in stenciling and perfecting that technique. The message of his art was mostly anti-war, anti-establishment and anti-capitalist. To portray these messages he often used images of rats, apes, soldiers, police officers, children and the elderly.

In 2002, he began hosting exhibitions for people to come and view his artwork. Banksy's first ever show was in Los Angeles and one of the biggest controversy of this show was the fact that he painted on an elephant. Even though the paint was harmless, animal rights group everywhere were outraged. Today his work is appreciated much more and is sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars at art auctions across the world. One of his latest pieces of art had to do with the 2012 summer Olympics in London. He posted pictures online of a javelin thrower lobbing a missile and a pole vaulter soaring over a barbed-wire fence. The mysterious part of it all is that the art is painted somewhere in London, waiting to be found. 

Metacognition: Mashup Process

In class we were assigned to do a Mashup that had to do with the book, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer M. Rilke. We did a lot ahead of time to prepare for creating this project. In class we did these free response type writings sessions where we would write down what we thought of the particular passage that Mr. Allen read out loud. There were a few passages that struck me about solitude and that is what I chose the topic of my Mashup to be. I'm not the most outgoing person in the world and maybe that's strange to some people but for me it is more relaxing and enjoyable than anything else.

The first thing I did to get into the solitude type thinking, I went back and re-read the passages about solitude and re-read my response. Since the project called for using your own responses in the Mashup, it helped to revise and add-on to my original thoughts at the time of the passage. I thought it was so cool how much my brain could think. My first reaction to the passage that I wrote down would be totally different than what I thought of the second time. Being able to relate to what I was reading about helped a lot as well. Though I hate to say it, all my English teachers were right when they said you have to make connections in order to understand what you're reading.

Another thing that surprised me about my thinking was that how much I sometimes surround myself with solitude and being by myself. I almost feel like I have given myself too much time to think. I can 100% see solidarity from my perspective but I haven't reached out to understand the perspectives of others or see what maybe they get out of it. This I felt was a little bit of a flaw in my project. Though it was easy for me to have different opinions and ideas, I still had the same perspective for each. If that makes sense. Another thing I think I need to work on is communicating better what my brain is thinking into words that can be easily understood for other people. Sometimes I go back and re-read something I wrote and it won't even make sense to me. Overall, I liked how it turned out and hopefully I was able to get my story across for solitude.