ZERO TO HERO

Banksy, the incognito artist that we know jack shit about, aside from that he’s English, and has a great sense of humour that he narrates through his highly provocative stencil graffiti. But now we can add good samaritan to the list. 

In February 2011, Tachowa Covington, stepped outside of the water tanker he was calling home for seven years, to find two guys standing outside his doorstep, I climbed down the ladder, looked at the writing, and I said, ‘Hey, that looks pretty cool!’ I introduced myself, and the English dude told me his name was Banksy. I didn’t know who he was, so I didn’t think twice about it.” Following banksy leaving his mark, the unscrupulous world of douche bag art collectors and financiers clambered on the opportunity to attain the tanker. A company named, Mint Currency used a crane to remove the structure over 16 hours. This left Covington homeless once again, forcing him to retreat into the Malibu hillsides where he once lived before moving into the water tank. Despite Mint Currency promising giivng him some funds from the sale of the art work, of course he never saw a single dime.

It was not long after the removal, that Covington received word from monsieur Banksy, whom offered him enoigh money to get him on his feet, find an apartment and pay the bills for a year year. “There ain’t no better man than Banksy,” he says. “He was an angel to me. He helped me more than anybody helped me in my life.”

His good deeds did not stop there, in order for Mint Currency to be able to sell the water tank, they needed authentication from Banksy. In a classy move, Bankst denied them this, rendering the water tank a worthless hunk of steel which ended up in a scrapheap.

When Covington learned of this he said, “But the writing on the tank wasn’t art, it was just lettering. The art was what was inside the tank. I regret that it’s gone: it was meant to be seen.