My new alter ego’s name is Thierry Guetta a.k.a. Mr. Brainwash who is the main character (aside from Banksy) in the documentary film about a street art film that was never made called, “Exit Through the Gift Shop”. Basically it is the story, captured on film, of art imitating life imitating art. Or, maybe it’s the story of an eccentric person wanting to capture the essence of renegade street artists, using film as an excuse, only to have the artists turn the film on him only to have him to transform their art into his.

Whatever you believe that the story is really about, Thierry Guetta is the eccentric French shop owner who upon entering the hidden world of street artists developed an unquenchable desire to meet with THE street artist, Banksky. So then why would I want to call Thierry Guetta my alter ego name? Because of the way he leap frogged over Banksy on his way to “becoming” who he always wanted.

In its own weird way, blogging has become a form of street art for my writing. I’ve always thought of myself as a writer but have never been disciplined enough to sit down day after day to dedicate a large portion of time to crafting my art. Instead I’ve had bouts of genius and when the genius faded away, I would allow my attention to become averted to something else. For a very long time, I’ve followed many writers and gotten to know many quite well. I’ve studied who they are, what they do and how they do what they do but until very recently have never applied any knowledge that I’ve accumulated. I must be hitting some kind of stride in my writing because recently I’ve gotten the distinct impression from a writer friend who had enjoyed a respected writing career until the recent economic downturn that this blogging that I do does not really qualify me as a writer. Not really. Yet in my mind, it is the most writing and perhaps the best writing that I’ve ever done.

Am I lazy because I haven’t yet set aside the larger portion of each day to write? You betcha. Have I taken the time to really research self-publishing sites like lulu.com and find out the steps I can take to compile the ten plus years of articles that I have in my cadre? Hell no. Does this make me any less a writer than some of my friends with several books waving at you from inside the windows of your favorite bookstore? I don’t think so.

All this begs the question, what is art really? What is writing really? In the movie, we can see how perhaps Thierry’s many years of following the lives of everyone around him (including himself) on film contributed to his non-threatening demeanor that made him trustworthy to a group of artists who by the very nature of what they do for art, do not trust very many people. This ability of Theirry’s a form of sociological sophistication, or a kind of human art form, if I’ve ever seen it.

To Banksy’s credit, he has a really dry, very wise sense of humor that allowed him to create the art that he is famous for and turn it on himself in the making of this film. Still, I can’t help but love Thierry for leap frogging over Banksy to become the person that he’d been searching for his whole life. The fact that he’s been able to make some millions along the way, is just gravy.

My question that I leave you with today is who is the Banksy in your life today and will you do some leap frogging of your own? Ribbit. Ribbit….