Balloon Girl

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

Banksy

I’m not one to really have a keen interest in paintings and drawings but Banksys’ “There is always hope”, or as many people know it as “Girl with balloon”, is the only piece of art that I truly appreciate. The painting itself is very simple and minimalistic: a little girl standing still with her left arm raised up and a red heart shaped balloon with a string attached that appears to be floating above her. I love how the artist is able to capture and show movement without needing to draw a background. The viewer knows that there’s wind blowing based on how the girl’s hair stands up above her head and the way the front of her dress appears lifted. I also admire how humble this painting is. The lack of very bright colors, except the red balloon, and how the girl is drawn in black against a white canvas is visually pleasing to me. It’s not doing too much and I’m able to focus on just these two aspects of the painting. When I look at this work, two questions immediately come to mind: why is the little girl just standing still and not chasing after the balloon? And why is she all alone? I get a feeling of hopelessness and sadness from this painting. Maybe she doesn’t run after the balloon because she thinks or knows she won’t be able to reach it and the red balloon possibly represents her happiness flying away. This piece brings back a memory of my childhood when I used to live in New York. My mother was walking me to school and we were passing a vendor selling giant cartoon character balloons. I saw a Scooby Doo shaped balloon that I really wanted and begged my mom to buy it for me but she refused. I remember crying and feeling hopeless because I was young and didn’t have any money so there was nothing I could do to get this thing that I so desired. In a way, this produces those emotions that I felt that day. All in all, this painting is an amazing piece that I can, to a degree, relate to.