Front cover
Foreword
Even before Bert showed Mary Poppins and the children how a little sidewalk chalk and a lot of imagination could transport them to other worlds, people were fascinated by street art. It's always surprising and often temporary and, therefore, magical in its own way. Julian Beever, Katie Sokoler and Banksy are three of today's most popular street artists. Though their mediums and motives vary, all three are responsible for making our streets and our worlds a little more colorful, a little more enchanting.
Julian Beever, arguably the most well known of the three, has gained worldwide attention for his trompe l'oeil chalk drawings, or drawings that appear to be three-dimensional, on sidewalks in more than a dozen countries. The drawings vary from swimming pools in the pavement to underground cities to portraits of high-profile people such as Princess Diana. "My art is for anybody," he has said. "It's for people who wouldn't go into an art gallery. It's art for the people."
Katie Sokoler, too, hopes people who wouldn't go to a gallery will stumble across her outdoor artwork. "I create art in a lot of places where people will find it just walking home or walking to work," the Brooklyn-based artist has said. Whereas Beever's medium is chalk, Sokoler works primarily with paper and tape. That means sometimes she's pasting people-shaped cutouts to brick buildings to look like shadows for passersby and other times she's sticking pink duct tape hearts below pipes to create the illusion that the pipes are raining love. Her creative artwork doesnt stop there, however. She's also been known to stick paper googly-eyes on everything from mailboxes to playground equipment and to mount paper thought bubbles in public seating areas to turn the outdoors into a real-life comic book.
Banksy, in contrast with Beever and Sokoler, is ever the enigma. The artist, who is known for his trademark stenciled graffiti and has been creating street art for more than 15 years, has done his best to retain anonymity despite the fact that pieces of his artwork have sold for six figures and have made it into the galleries of celebrities as famous as Brad Pitt and Christina Aguilera. "I have no interest in ever coming out," Banksy once told magazine. The mystery surrounding him, however, has only served to make his pieces that much more interesting. Like Sokoler, he has given eyes to inanimate outdoor objects like telephone booths, and like Beever, he has created images so surprising that pedestrians do double takes. Banksy's pieces differ from those of Sokoler and Beever, however, because they are often darker and more political in nature, making controversial statements about government and social justice issues.
So flip through the following pages and see for yourself the work of these three talented and unique street artists. The work will surely inspire and intrigue you. Perhaps it will even transport you, like Jane and Michael Banks to some other magical world.
Even before Bert showed Mary Poppins and the children how a little sidewalk chalk and a lot of imagination could transport them to other worlds, people were fascinated by street art. It's always surprising and often temporary and, therefore, magical in its own way. Julian Beever, Katie Sokoler and Banksy are three of today's most popular street artists. Though their mediums and motives vary, all three are responsible for making our streets and our worlds a little more colorful, a little more enchanting.
Julian Beever, arguably the most well known of the three, has gained worldwide attention for his trompe l'oeil chalk drawings, or drawings that appear to be three-dimensional, on sidewalks in more than a dozen countries. The drawings vary from swimming pools in the pavement to underground cities to portraits of high-profile people such as Princess Diana. "My art is for anybody," he has said. "It's for people who wouldn't go into an art gallery. It's art for the people."
Katie Sokoler, too, hopes people who wouldn't go to a gallery will stumble across her outdoor artwork. "I create art in a lot of places where people will find it just walking home or walking to work," the Brooklyn-based artist has said. Whereas Beever's medium is chalk, Sokoler works primarily with paper and tape. That means sometimes she's pasting people-shaped cutouts to brick buildings to look like shadows for passersby and other times she's sticking pink duct tape hearts below pipes to create the illusion that the pipes are raining love. Her creative artwork doesnt stop there, however. She's also been known to stick paper googly-eyes on everything from mailboxes to playground equipment and to mount paper thought bubbles in public seating areas to turn the outdoors into a real-life comic book.
Banksy, in contrast with Beever and Sokoler, is ever the enigma. The artist, who is known for his trademark stenciled graffiti and has been creating street art for more than 15 years, has done his best to retain anonymity despite the fact that pieces of his artwork have sold for six figures and have made it into the galleries of celebrities as famous as Brad Pitt and Christina Aguilera. "I have no interest in ever coming out," Banksy once told magazine. The mystery surrounding him, however, has only served to make his pieces that much more interesting. Like Sokoler, he has given eyes to inanimate outdoor objects like telephone booths, and like Beever, he has created images so surprising that pedestrians do double takes. Banksy's pieces differ from those of Sokoler and Beever, however, because they are often darker and more political in nature, making controversial statements about government and social justice issues.
So flip through the following pages and see for yourself the work of these three talented and unique street artists. The work will surely inspire and intrigue you. Perhaps it will even transport you, like Jane and Michael Banks to some other magical world.
Back cover
