THE BANKSY GRAFFITI - ART PHENOMENON IN PORTLAND, OREGON

In the first half of 2010, some outside Portland building walls were decorated by what looks like Banksy stencil wall paintings. Banksy is the so called "mysterious" British artist whose public art has appeared on building walls and public places around the world.

"Banksy is the pseudonym of a prolific British graffiti artist, political activist and painter, whose identity is unconfirmed. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humor with graffiti done in a distinctive stenciling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. According to author and graphic designer Tristan Manco, Banksy was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s. Observers have noted that his style is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

By the end of August, 2010 Portland had 3 Banksy look-alike paintings. (See below.) But are these original Banksy paintings? This author has done a survey of all 3 paintings and has talked to owners or workers of the buildings whose walls have been used as large canvases for these works. In all cases so far, no one has given permission, nor did they have any prior knowledge of the paintings that mysteriously appeared on the walls of the buildings they occupy. Each representative claimed that one day the wall was blank and the next day a painting appeared. When asked what do they plan to do, if anything, about the paintings, each said that their clients and friends actually liked the work and for the time being they plan to leave them be.

If these paintings are not claimed as originals and if these paintings have been painted without permission - are they basically free public domain art? Or do they belong by default to the lucky or unlucky building owners, depending on your point of view?

In any event, I took the chance of photographing all 3 paintings and provided location addresses and I am presenting these on this website for the amusement of the occasional reader who may stumble upon these pages accidentally.

For my own amusement, in addition to providing a straight photograph of the location and a close-up, I have converted them also to quasi 3D anaglyph pictures. I hope you enjoy these.

I am indebted to my friend Joe Freedman for making me aware of Banksy and pointing me to "his" art in Portland. Joe and his wife Ilisha are master artists, illustrators, laser artists and paper engineers who relocated to Portland from the East Coast last year. Visit their website: http://www.leafpdx.com/

If you have any comments about these paintings, or know of new ones in this part of the world, please let me know and I will thank you publicly on these pages: shablevy@comcast.net

THE PAINTINGS