Wanksy: Creativity’s Purpose Is To Drive Inspired Action

Creativity doesn’t have to be painting pictures or writing poetry. 

Creativity is finding inspiration in the world, noticing it catches our curiosity in some way, doing something about it, and then choosing, if it serves us, to make it a habit of looking for more inspiration to serve our curiosity.* 

And you can find it anywhere. You can find it in the road. Like – in a pothole your town seemingly will not ever fix. 

I have a Banksy print on my wall. I love his street/folk art. I love the graffiti aesthetic and the feelings of remixed post-industrial life that it evokes in me. 

I don’t have a Wanksy print on my wall. But… Wanksy is just as much a creator. His work is an authentically creative act. Wanksy’s efforts might even be more emblematic of progress than anything Banksy does.  

Even if it’s just some guy, with a juvenile joke of an artist’s name, who decided to draw crude symbols around potholes. 

Why? 

Because Wanksy consistently inspires action. 

Wanksy realizes the local government is in no rush to fix a hole in the road. It’s bad for bikers, and bad for drivers, and worse for the combination of the two. But potholes can be so common and scattered about, most bikers and drivers just frustratingly let them go and hope they’ll eventually get patched up when the municipality notices. 

Wanksy figured out a way to bring more attention to the holes. And in that, he found a way to get them fixed – quickly. He did it by making the potholes more convenient to complain about. He did by spray painting brightly colored c***s and b***s around each pothole. 

Stupid, yes. But also – brilliant. Deftly brilliant. 

Frustrating potholes are the inspiration. Curiosity is noticing they won’t be fixed. Creativity is coming up with the juvenile gesture and doing it once. Habit is realizing it works and then doing it again and again. A virtuous cycle until all the potholes are gone (and they’ll never all be gone). 

Creativity is everywhere. 

To the Wanksy’s and the Banksy’s. 

*if you need a visual of this – check out “The Creator Flywheel” 

h/t to the living legend Dave Trott himself – here’s a video of Trott talking about the creativity of Wanksy 

Ps. Because how often do I get to reference this song? You were already thinking it too. Admit it.