There was a great street art show on Cots Lane, near Bethnal Green, E. London. It was a little out the way, and you wouldn’t exactly stumble across it if you were having a walk in the area but over 2,000 people turned up for the opening on Thursday night.

I missed the opening, but went along on Saturday (the show has now been broken down). There was some seriously great work there, and lots of it.
This one (left) is a huge painting by The Busk, who I have done a couple of small collaboration artworks with recently. This painting is about 150 x 150cm.

I actually bought a piece of art. Funny, as I have been creating art for over 15 years, selling for 10, but this was the first piece I have ever bought. It is by The Krah, some work of his here. After contacting The Krah since, I hope to be doing a little collaboration with him soon…

Recently a couple of Banksy’s London pieces have been defaced. A few weeks ago a graffiti artist 101Foot wrote a message over one of Banksy’s better known pieces (above image), near Old Street tube, London. It’s message states “SAY NO TO ART FAGS”. While this statement reflects an increasingly heard opinion in the UK street art scene (still perhaps not justifying the defacing of a popular piece of art), the more recent defacing is a little less intelligible, and is just a shame. Banksy only put this piece up a couple of weeks ago (N Hackney, near Old Street) and was apparently his first in London for over a year.
It does beg the inevitable question of whether Banksy is still as respected and revered by us London/UK folk. The answer i think is mixed, the defacing by 101Foot definitely represents a slowly growing sentiment amongst some street/graffiti artists. It’s less about Banksy though and more about how street art almost/has been totally commercialized by the mainstream art galleries and pundits globally. Amongst all this, the reality of some of the now recognized ’street artists’ backgrounds being not so ’street’ has taken some of the credibility out of it all. Many graffiti artists have being doing their thing for 15-20 years, and some ‘recognized’ artists promoted by mainstream galleries are almost fresh out of art college….
In Brazil, under a year ago, a respected art gallery was rushed by a street gang during it’s opening night. The gang sprayed their tags over all of the “street art” prints that were on sale, apparently because they took offense to the artist claiming “street”. Could this happen in London soon??? Would be fun to see, and perhaps welcomed by a few hardcore artists.
As an artist I reference graffiti in my drawings, and I know I need to careful not to mislead others about what kind of artist I am.
Politics….

“]
An insightful, recent article on alJazeeramanages to fairly explain the background of why Tibet is so hard for China to let go of. Tibet matters to China for many reasons, most of which do not throw positive light on China itself. Tibet (in my opinion) matters dearly to the world for positive and increasingly desperate reasons. More specifically the Tibetan culture, it’s Buddhist teachings and it’s past.

Tibet was a monastic society, where 1 in 5 people were practicing monks. In our society more than 1 in 5 people have a criminal record! I’m sure you see my point. It would/ is becoming a tragedy that Tibetan values/culture/spiritual teachings/ancient knowledge are being slowely drowned out by the Chinese “integration”.
The BBC web site has put up a slide show with audio documenting his flight into exile from the Chinese.
In the 1997 film by Martin Scorcesse Kundun (Kundun was the Dali Lama’s name), the young Dali Lama leaves Tibet for India (fleeing the Chinese invasion), before he leaves he says “I see a safe passage. I see a safe return” (in below video). I have always hoped (along with almost everyone else) that he will one day return to Tibet. Now with the Dalai Lama getting old, and the Chinese remaining stubborn and paranoid, the likely hood is fading. With it is fading the benefits that the generous wisdom of the Dali Lama spreading to the wider world. Below is the moving ending from the film Kundun depicting his departure from Tibet. Loss of this knowledge and culture would be a loss for the whole world.

The Buddhas neither wash ill deeds away with water, nor remove beings’ sufferings with their hands, nor transfer their realizations to others.
Beings, are released through the teachings of the truth.
The final reality.