Banksy Paints a Mural on Building Named After Him

When administrators returned to Bridge Farm Primary School in Bristol, England, after their half-term break they were greeted with quite an exciting surprise—a mural painted on the side of the school by the one and only Banksy. The school had recently named one of its buildings after the elusive artist and it appears as if this is his way of saying thanks.

The mural features a stick figure drawing of a girl pushing a remarkably realistic looking flaming tire down a road. Like much of Bansky’s work this piece mixes a whimsical innocence of childhood with a skewed and harsh look at reality. Plus, also as seen through most of his work, it just looks pretty damn cool. Can you imagine going to school with a mural this amazing painted on one of the buildings? All we had was a lame map of the United States painted on to our playground that refused to acknowledge the existence of Hawaii or Alaska.

The always playful artist left a note alongside the mural reminding children that it “is always easier to get forgiveness than permission.” Banksy also encourages the students to add stuff to the mural if they don’t like the way it looks now, but we think it looks pretty great as it is. Students at the school obviously admire the artist whose career started in Bristol since they voted to have the building named after him. Other buildings at the school are named after John Cabot (an explorer), Isambard Kingdom Brunel (an architect) and the ferocious pirate Blackbeard, according to The Guardian.

A great deal of Banksy’s work over the years has been torn off the walls and sold at auction, which is a very disappointing result given that the public element of components of his work. Thankfully administrators at Bridge Farm Primary School say that they are going to be keeping the art exactly where it is, thus making it the coolest primary school in all of the UK.