Its Hard to Make It In the World of Graffiti and Street Art World

***This feature was written during Banksy's Better Out Than In but never published. The timing references might be out of sync, but the larger points still apply***

This morning, Banksy's 'Eternity' piece woke up to even more damage.  The funniest is a new tag that says nothing more than 'Fuck Banksy'.

Its hard to make it in the world of graffiti and street art.  Everyone outside your community hates what you are doing.  The authorities will arrest you for your art.  Even within the community, it often times feels like there are more haters than lovers in the scene.  And at end of the day, some buffman is waiting to paint over your art.  Its tough to get up and stay up.  It takes a thick skin and balls of steel.  And, some might add, questionable judgement. Bottom line, it is tough work being a graffiti or street artist.

M&F already addressed the small minded--and small dicked--mindset that leads to tagging over pieces and 'Team Robbo' type behavior (there are also some valid points raised in the comments). This post is to point out that it is hard work being a graffiti or street artist.  There is a lot of hate coming from every angle.  Not every graffiti and street artist has experienced the hate on Banksy's level, but everyone who gets up has experienced it on some level or another.

As Banksy prophetically quoted on this very piece yesterday,  "I'm just going to use that hostility to make me stronger, not weaker". 

Staying up is for the strongest, toughest ones.  Stay up!~