Burning Down the Banks

Burning Down the Banks

Today I salute a true American hero. A man who took the freedom of speech and stepped into the world of artistic awesomeness. I speak of course of a man who in some shape or form, took down the banks by just a little bit in his own very special way. For you see, Artist Alex Schaefer paints bank branches burning.

I started another burning bank painting today, this time the Chase branch in Van Nuys. I got lots of thumbs up and likes from passersby but after an hour and a half the cops showed up. They said someone called thought I might be a terrorist. It was a peaceful encounter and I think the cops felt a little silly writing me up; its a long way from painting a visual metaphor of the banks to actual terrorism. They ran my ID through their computer, we chatted a bit and they let me go. I can't wait to start another one now! Aahahah! Who would have thought plein air painting could become an episode of COPS? The piece needs a little more work but I'm going to let it get good and dry and do more in the meantime.

The person who reported him to the police should be tarred and feathered. I have to wonder what kind of terrorist would paint their plan before doing it? That sounds more like a super villain move more than anything else.

And it's rather odd that there's a terrorism alert because the guy picture below was using some paints and yet when the banks were blowing up the dreams of homeowners and burning the countries economic foundation to the ground there's not a cop in sight. Because that's what he was doing. He was out in the front of the bank painting an interpretation of our nation's financial situation going up in flames and he's suspected of terrorism.



This just goes to show that we're a nation of hysterics, paranoids and a complete lack of anything remotely close to resembling freedom.

I seriously dislike banks to the point where I'm cheering for the simple painting of a branch being burned to the fucking ground. But even a moron could make the distinction between an actual arsonist or terrorist and someone who is painting with some artistic expression. To have the LAPD waste its time and function as goomba muscle for the rich just show the true state of our nation.



Apparently a story in the Sunday’s L.A. Times said that the LAPD detectives later showed up at his door in Eagle Rock and asked him a series of questions to see how much of a risk he was. Hard hitting detective skill questions like "Do you hate banks? Do you plan to do that to the bank?"

Why yes officer. I plan to burn the bank down just like I drew it on here. Would you like to purchase a picture of the future? But hey, all of this sudden harassment had some pay out in the long run. It all generated buzz for the pieces and put this otherwise unknown artist into the media attention. So now his painting titled "Chase Burning." was put up for auction on ebay with a starting bid of $920.

Maybe if he's lucky then the bank manager of the Chase branch in Los Feliz, which was pictured in the painting, will have a sense of humor and buy the piece of art to hang up on the wall of the bank. You know, the specific location that the cops and other prosecutors should be focusing their attention on to catch blue collar criminals conducting their daily fleecing of America.