Letter to Banksy - New Orleans, by Daniel Silk on Sept 18, 2008 17:14:45 GMT 1, blog.nola.com/dougmaccash/2008/09/banksy_call_home.html

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To: Mr. Banksy
Famous graffiti artist
Address unknown

From: Doug MacCash
Art critic
The Times-Picayune newspaper

Sept. 16, 2008

Dear Mr. Banksy,

You've certainly made a splash in our below-sea-level city. Based on the responses I've received, the New Orleans public loves you -- though a few citizens point out that unauthorized painting is illegal and unwanted, regardless of your abundant talent.

As you may already know, one of your paintings -- the gas-masked brass band -- was painted over by a property caretaker. Rumor has it that smaller pieces -- a rat painted on clapboards, for example -- were pried off by collectors.

Your painting of a pair of uniformed looters was temporarily obscured with plywood. The owner of the building said that he hoped the plywood would protect the painting from being defaced. The plywood was torn off in the night -- perhaps by fans of yours.

The looter painting is the most politically problematic of your New Orleans works. More than one reader suggested that depicting National Guardsmen (I presume they are Guardsmen) as thieves is a mischaracterization. The Guardsman's mother who phoned me was aggrieved and angry -- as much at me (for including a photo of the looters in the newspaper) as you. Retired Brigadier General Russell A. Mayeur of the Louisiana National Guard phoned to express his frustration at the depiction as well. Truth is, Mr. Banksy, I feel you may have missed the mark here. The Guardsmen I met during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath deserve better.

Or maybe we're interpreting the image incorrectly? Why did you choose to clothe looters in military uniforms? Considering the irony in your other works, I assume it wasn't a casual choice. Can you clear it up for my readers?

Here's another question: How many paintings did you do during your stay? I tried to find them all, but missed three or four smaller works that appeared on your Web site. There's also a photo of a large-scale piece at Banksy Does New Orleans that depicts a child painting red flowers on a wall. A gray workman (presumably our anti-graffiti activist Fred Radtke) follows behind the child painting out the blossoms. Between you and me, I wish our graffiti artists were as talented as that child. Most of our graffiti artists simply scrawl variations of their code names, as if they were high schoolers doodling in the margins of their homework.

But I digress.

Where is the child/flowers/gray ghost painting? I found two similar pieces, but that one remains a mystery. Some readers felt I shouldn't have reported the locations of the works, for fear they would be more easily blotted out. But I felt you'd intended them for the broadest possible public. Was I right?

You seem quite outraged by Mr. Radtke -- understandable for someone in your line of work. Though the comment posted on (presumably) your Web site takes matters a bit too far. To say that Radtke has "done more damage to the culture of the city than any section (category) five hurricane could ever hope to achieve" seems, to those of us who lived through the 2005 storm and flood, uninformed to say the least. Would you like to put a finer point on it?

Though I understand the need for privacy your profession requires, I hope you can emerge from anonymity long enough for a telephone interview. Call me at 504.826.3481. I doubt if answering a few questions from an art critic will much expose you or diminish your mystique.

Hopefully,

Your fan, Doug