UK Artist Fights Potholes With Penis Drawings

He's inspired by artists such as Grayson Perry and Banksy. But instead of decorating ceramic vases or spray-painting a wall, an artist in Ramsbottom, England, is drawing attention to a town nuisance by drawing male genitalia around them. "I wanted to attract attention to the pothole[s] and make [them] memorable," the artist known as Wanksy tells the Manchester Evening News. "Nothing seemed to do this better than a giant comedy phallus." Apparently the roads in town are a mess, riddled with craters that have sent some of Wanksy's biking pals to the hospital, so he tried to come up with a way to capture city officials' attention. He says it's working, with potholes getting filled in faster.

He notes his drawings aren't about ego—"Unlike [other] artists, I want my work to be destroyed … and replaced with fresh tarmac"—but a local council spokesman doesn't see the humor or effectiveness of Wanksy's methodology. "Has this person … considered how families with young children must feel when they are confronted with these obscene symbols as they walk to school?" he says to the News. The spokesman goes on to encourage people to turn Wanksy in if they see him defacing roads, but the artist is already way ahead of possible legal issues: He tells the BBC he uses a temporary paint that washes off within a week or two. (Better than marking up a national park, at any rate.)