Banksy in Bristol!

Waiting in the queue in the pouring rain, which thankfully didn't last for the 2+ hours we were standing in it. The garbage bags were an impulse buy at the beginning of the storm, which I happily distributed to others around us who also lacked proper rain gear (although Thing One and Thing Two had rain jackets on underneath).

The main things we learned at the Banksy vs. Bristol Museum exhibition, which closed today:

• Art can be funny!
• Undoubtedly, there is no nationality better at civilized queing than the British (see: Wimbledon and this exhibit, where people were waiting in a queue up to a mile long, according to news reports)

• A treasure hunt for Banksy pieces through the Bristol Museum is the only way you would ever look at its exhibition on British china in the 18th century or geological formations.

• A two and a quarter hour wait for the Exhibition of the Year (if the national press is to be believed), is nothing if people in the final weekend were waiting up to eight hours during the last weekend.

• Knowing the name of an anonymous artist is only valuable if the name means something to you. As we don't know anyone from Bristol, I don't really care what Banksy's name is.

• If you follow your child's enthusiasm for some things, it may develop into your own enthusiasm. (Thing One liked Banksy first, and it was his idea to go to Bristol for a trip to see the exhibit. We're glad he did.)

• Our friend, Charming Baker, is a more talented artist. And it's *possible* that Banksy may have attended one of his shows. But we'll never know for sure.

But the best way to talk some more about this is to show you some pictures:

The lion was hungry! The poor tamer...

The speech balloons say, (left) "Does anyone actually take this kind of art seriously?"
(Right) "Never under estimate the power of a big gold frame."

If you're interested in seeing more Banksy pictures from the exhibition, or just need a laugh, go to this BBC slide show or to this collection on Flickr. My pictures don't really do it justice.

If you'd like to know more about Banksy, the British guerilla artist/millionare, go to his very exhaustive Wikipedia entry.