On Art

Even for people who know me it often comes as a surprise that I have an artistic vein that although it runs deep and silent sometimes surfaces and demands attention. Not that any of my work is any good or very interesting to anybody but yours truly, but the thing is that I sometimes spend entire week-ends dabbling with photography and often end up fooling around in Photoshop creating some rather odd looking compositions.
To compensate for my utter lack of talent in this field I like to visit art galleries, browse the web or as I did just recently walk through the city and experience some of the street art that seems to appear on every corner these days.
Street art is very controversial, I know. Some of the self proclaimed artist are writing "cunt" or "art is not a crime" on what seems like just about every vertical surface. This is not art, and this will never be art. It is vandalism and the perpetrators deserve all the community service they can get.
On the other hand some people seem to use the public space to create a statement or to comment on society in a way that justifies the means. These guys are extremely rare, and walking through the city this week-end I unfortunately didn't see any of their work. All I saw was irrelevant doodles and tags done by juveniles. Copenhagen is indeed a poor city when it comes to street art.
I wish more street artists were like Banksy. This brilliant artist shrouded in mystery not only has the artistic skills required to convey his messages but every piece that he does is relevant and makes a point. You may not like his work and you may disagree with him, but his art demands attention in a way that's impossible to ignore, and being impossible to ignore is truly the hallmark of any great artist and separates the great from the mediocre.

JB