Carlsbad Art and Culture

An art movement is created by the growth of a group of like-minded artists with similar goals and philosophies over months, years and even decades. Their visual art and conceptualizations are broadcasted via a large variety of mediums including visual art, manifestos, word-of-mouth, performance and the ever powerful internet, ultimately establishing justifications for their artistic explorations.

The impressionists of the late 19th century explored light and plein air painting. The post-impressionists added emotion and the cubists were inspired by geometry. The timeline of art history is scattered with a large variety of movements.

We are lucky to be living during one of the largest and wide-spreading art movements in history. Thanks to the internet, the current art movement of street art has exposed participants and fans to the movement all over the world. Where past movements remained more geographically isolated, art pieces still fresh in the streets are uploaded to the web and viewed immediately across the globe.

Banksy, an anonymous English street artist, along with a handful of other artists, is partly responsible for the emergence of this once subversive scene into mainstream culture. His aesthetic stencil technique continues to improve with each project, but what sets him apart from other street artists is his creativity and his ability to to compose a well balanced design harmonizing technique, the urban environment and political/environmental subject matter.

On July 28th, 2012, Southern California artist Bryan Snyder transformed the Cardiff Kook sculpture into one of Banksy’s most popular images along with over a dozen additional Banksy images in the background.

“The goal of this project was to transform the Kook and the surrounding environment into a learning experience rather than just an urban canvas”, Snyder says. “It’s a tribute to a street artist and a lesson on the current art movement of street art, one which will be taught to students in future educational setting.”