And you're American, which is even worse

My point is that with the exception of Micallef and Banksy who has the capability of rising beyond your number 4?

Cheers Nuart.
I wasn't being derogative of any of the work posted on the site. It's simply that there's a boatload of stuff that is just derivative of what's been before.

I think the morons message may have been distorted by time. Banksy blew up during and after the LA show, the morons was painted before when he still had prints sitting unsold on POW.

Could the real message have been he thought that the art auctions were a load of crap, from the outside looking in. One year later, he's on the inside looking out, and the message suddenly has a lot more irony than perhaps he originally intended?

Hhmmmm.... Interesting stuff flying around. I just returned to the states from Edinburgh. I said this earlier but... Warhol exhibit was amazing. Not that i was expecting anything less. I'm fairly new to the scene but have been obsessed, as much of you seem to be since I’ve gotten started. Banksy's work does cost an outrageous amount. My father spent most of his life selling "fine prints" and when i told him i bought an unsigned banksy for 2 grand he nearly killed me. Not that he paid for it.
While in Edinburgh i made friends with a cute British girl. I asked if she knew of a graffiti artist by the name of... she finished my sentence with an exclamation mark. Its funny how he seems to be a household name in the UK. Not so much over here but as of the last year it’s certainly starting to catch. She told me her family is well off and she looks after her dad's extensive private collection, which he plans to make a gallery out of. No banksy’s adorn it yet but maybe in the future.
I plan on attending the l.a show because it’s a stones through from me (and a friend has an extra invite). Not planning to spend anything unless it knocks me over.
I will say there is quite the hype. I made sure to get the UK GQ with the six-page banksy article. Talk about publicity. I showed my mom the article hoping to better explain banksy to her. Being the animal activist that she is, she wasn’t too fond of the elephant stunt in l.a (despite the fact i told her the paint was non-toxic "which i sure hope it was") she also said she thought he is a bit arrogant. Apparently the "morons" print didnt go over to well either. I cant say i completley agree with her but i have been questioning latley what Mr. banks thinks of us. Especially wealthy wankers like myself who do "escape life in art".
Before anyone takes the easy way out and calls me a rich mama's boy, i will say the woman has been collecting art since most of us were still in diapers and has seen s**t go down in her day... when she asked what my obsession was i replied without missing a beat. I like Banksy for the messages he puts in his work. They, as someone else mentioned... talk about what's not said. I feel like his graffiti is what my thoughts are on print. So that’s how i can justify shelling off what i do for it. What scares me is although i found morons to be funny it does also bother me that the message was sort of shot in our direction. Don’t u? Not to mention i had a friend buy a signed one for 4 grand 5-6 months ago and they are now going for 6 on eBay. Is banksy in disbelief that people are paying attention to him or paying too much for his attention? I mean if the man dislikes money so much i sure do hope he makes donations to charities or something of the sort. I just feel one day he might pull something on us because although his messages, pranks and lack of identity are good fun/genius and all. I cant help but think that he isn’t to fond of the wealthy over-consumers who coincidently seem to be the only people who can afford even an unsigned one of his prints at this point. Although i do hear from semi-reliable sources that he has no problem revealing himself to the upper class of Britain who are into the scene. So tell me banksy... wtf. You love the little people but hide in the upper class? But you hate the rich who like art? too cool for everyone are we? Are we the morons for spending all this time on you? Cause hell, i don’t know what to think anymore. If you are planning to crash you’re own market (as one person mentioned in "the bubble burst thread awhile back") by mass-producing prints. Then please let us know cause although i love ur work and can afford to pay what I do for what I like... ill gladly wait till your stunt is through so i can get a grin reaper from joe bob instead of a flipper. (Although i seriously doubt that will happen of course and even if it did mine is at least still numbered) but is anyone else catching my drift or have i gone mad? And to address what some have said earlier about the scene… yea its gone a bit over-ground but as a few have said earlier… all the banksy fans are not all on this forum nor follow him as closely. Just the obsessed star wars fans (no offense brain and bobby). Although it does bother me that no one really does seem to go very deep in the meaning of anything around here. As regards to the decline recently… love and gangsta rat have been pulling along just fine. Everyone is on holiday… no one is buying banksys right now and even I’m beginning to grow tired waiting on this next release.
sorry I wrote about a page and a half. Kudos to whom ever actually reads it. But tell me.
Am I off? I’m new so please feel free to tare me a new one.
Ok I’m jet-lagged and I see you guys are just getting up so ill be looking forward to what the responses r in the morning.
“don’t stitch me up”