Banksy
Banksy is one of those graffiti artists that I truly appreciate. I wrote a post not too long ago about ABOVE and how I really enjoy his work. Banksy’s work is right up there in my book! There is something about Banksy I really admire, his “unknown” factor. By that I mean, he is a ghost… How in the world he manages to do what he does and not get caught or not have his true identity revealed is astonishing to me!
While on vacation last summer, we stopped in New Orleans and I was speaking with an artist in the French Quarter. Oddly enough I happened to spot an ABOVE stencil on a drop-cloth hanging from a building behind him and that got us talking about Banksy. I knew he had hit NOLA a few years after Katrina, but didn’t know where and that most of the pieces have since been stolen or buffed… The artist I was talking to said the same thing I was thinking about him, “He is a ghost…” He went on to say “I don’t know how he did it, but he hit areas that you could get your throat slit during the day!” He then told me that he thinks all of the pieces are either gone or had been buffed but one, the Rain Girl, which I had not known prior to the conversation.
That got me very curious about his NOLA tour and I wanted to track it down and catch a look at it on our way out of the city. I did some searching around on some forums and found out roughly where it was. No exact address was listed so I talked with one of the doormen at the hotel we were staying at and asked him about the Drop-In Center. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me where it was. So with heavy convincing, I got my wife to swing by there with me on the way out of town.
Needless to say, when I saw this trailer for his movie “Exit Through The Gift Shop” I got really excited…
[...] had the opportunity to see the Rain Girl in New Orleans. At the time, I was under the assumption based on what I was told at Jackson Square [...]