five lil words are all it takes

.. several years ago I was in London, walking around taking photos of graffiti because I find this to be most vibrant element of urban art and culture .. something between the here today/buffed tomorrow and the illegal-yet-innocent qualities of vandalism gives me butterflies ..

now I don't mean that I get giddy over every Tom, Dick, and Harry getting up .. More like those who take it to the next level, putting out something that really makes you stop short like, holy fuck who is this who did this .. and it's the fact that chances are I will never know who it is that makes it all the more romantic because I become a fan, enamored of the work, keeping my eyes to the sky checking for new pieces and often ecstatic when I find something I had not previously seen .. so I was going around London, photographing all sorts of spots, when I found this one guy who had it goin on ..

Banksy

there's a place in my heart for artists who get me open and Banksy has a fully furnished duplex in there .. I picked up his self-published books at Magma and nearly fell over when I read them .. aside from the fact I am like youbettafuckindoit I noticed he bombed a cow .. he bombed a fuckin cow .. he bombed a fuckin cow with the Wild Style logo and I was like, YES YES I have a reason to contact him !!

so I sent him an email a couple of months ago, asking if we could use the image in Charlie Ahearn's forthcoming book, Wild Style: The Sampler, the 25th anniversary book planned for release in Spring 2007 which will feature never-before-seen images and stories documenting the making of Wild Style and it's influence on hip hop and pop culture for the past quarter century .. trust, you will be hearing more about this for months to come ..

so I sent Banksy an email introducing myself, asking if we could use his photo and he said yes !! now mind you I wasn't about to send him a follow up then and there like, umm would you mind sending it a 10x10 300 dpi tif file cause I was just in awe that he replied to me .. I had also mentioned I was a great admirer and would love to work with him on a book should he be so inclined ..

little did I know he had actually done a full on art book til I picked up Tuesday nite at Urban Outfitters .. This time I was caught somewhere between complete and utter awe for his work and blatant envy of his publishers .. but happily there was a full page of the Wild Style cow so I dropped him a lil follow up note, asking if he was down to send us a scan, and also to congratulate him on the book which raises the bar for all graffiti and art monographs (seriously, if you do one thing with your life, please go get it .. you'll see what I'm talkin about)

so I get a reply from him this morning saying: you're a real charmer, thanks .. and that he'll send the scan

and now I am like a big puddle in an office chair, sitting at my desk trying to type with fingers made of melted wax ..