Message From The Clergy

Oh great, another 'street brand" has decided to use the 18b Arts District for advertising. We have to admit when we first saw the face of Papa Emeritus from the band Ghost, we were kinda happy cuz its one of our favorite bands. We also were kinda into how this piece was made from tiled screen prints on what looks like shirts from the blemish pile, but it became clear that this image was straight up stolen from the Papaemeritus.com website. Now they are trying to sell them, as well the Guy Fawkes mask made famous by hacker group Anonymous. (Who are actually embroiled in a copywrite dispute over its own logo at the moment, so watch your ass.) It seems that a lot of their stuff is stolen intellectual property that is being hawked as one of a kind pieces, cuz they splashed paint on it. We count at least 8 images on this wall that aren't theirs, but hey you can still buy them! We always marvel at these "street" brands that put up art like once a year, and usually have someone else do it for them. But hey, we are street!!! ...sure, sure you are.

Fear & Pandering

Another wheatpaste piece from Cheyenne Randall in the 18b Arts District, a little further down the street from his Elvis piece and a little sloppier as well. When we saw this piece from afar we initially thought it was Hunter S. Thomson with a shotgun and kinda dug it, but we got up close and saw it was a photo of Britney Spears during her 2007 meltdown. Which makes us wonder, "if you are gonna pander artwork to someone that has a huge show in town, shouldn't it be complimentary?" Oh well, pandering is pandering we guess. This piece seems like it was rushed to be put up in the streets, or they didn't take any care to tile it beforehand and just let the printing edges ride in a few places. Kind of a sloppy job for a high profile artist, but maybe they were rushed like we said previously. Not really an excuse at this point in a career, but hey shit happens.

Happy Holidaze

More new pieces downtown in the Fremont East district from street art duo There She Is and You Killed Me First. There She Is with a huge handpainted Hunter S. Thompson piece, complete with cigarette and his every-present filter. We really love the drips coming off his glasses and the addition of gold paint when hit by the right light makes his sunglasses look mirrored. It makes the whole piece elevated with this special touch, a great idea and look brought to the streets! You Killed Me First joins his partner with pieces on either side of the electrical box, on one side a return to the "Indexing" street sign takeover seen previously. As well as a new image of the classic Girl Vampire Halloween mask ad but just a little more "fabulous", with added drag makeup and finished off with a bunch of tiny text following the border. When we first spotted these images while driving we could have never guesses that there was another There She Is image still riding on the box! A Suicide Robot that must have been there for months and months, sun bleached and a little torn but still riding strong....well for a dead robot that is!

Defaced

Retuning to the corner of Fremont and 8th, to where D*Face left us this piece from this years Life Is Beautiful festival. This little guy is still hanging in there ok and still broke and hell, but seriously what is the deal with the skulls image capping LaRON Emcee? We've been seeing this artist's stuff everywhere lately, apparently their "art" is covering artwork that isn't their own with a crappy print of a skull. We aren't one to really talk shit on other artwork, well actually that is all we do, but! This is pretty damn ridiculous, why someone would cover a handpainted piece is beyond us. Our guess is that they are trying to make some sorta artistic point, but then again are we just elevating it to a higher level of art theory or something? Well anyway, there are plenty of pieces covered now with these skulls and I'm sure we'll see more.

Unleaded Supreme Leader

This interesting piece from someone called Skyn3t was found on a North Vegas gasoline pump, kind of a weird spot so we had to stop. We found a very familiar image within the world of street art, Kim Jong Un. But with the added flat top hairdo to update his own or this piece? We aren't too sure what they are shooting for to be honest,  But we did find this image curious enough to stop and take and photo. Upon further investigation to see who made this piece we found some familiar images that we've been seeing lately and the artists name RM "Serene". Not really sure what the deal is with the two names but sometimes artists like to keep people just a bit off the scent, hmmm could be right? Well at least we known for certain that we are spotting new artists with new work hitting new spots around town, so lets keep it up people!

Taking Care of Business

Seattle artist Cheyenne Randall came through Las Vegas a few days ago and brought a few pieces with him to get up, and he got up huge! Known mostly for Photoshopping old school tattoos onto celebrities past and present, we knew just what to expect when we heard his name. He certainly didn't disappoint with this giant image of a classic young Elvis and trademark hairdo, but with all the added tattoos and the like. We dig the added touch of the TCB on his ear but the wolf leaves a little to be desired with its placement, but then again we've seen way worse placement and tattoos in real life. This spot seems to get buffed immediately when someone gets up with a piece or tag, we don't know if its the previous artist regulating or not. We did happen to notice that someone tore part of the piece to make it blend with the existing mural, it makes it feel more complete and legit somehow. Be warned if you wanna see this piece, you better get moving cuz they like to keep this wall clean. But this is a damn cool edition to the 18b Arts District, this might be the piece to beat right now!

Double Feature

Street Art duo There She Is and You Killed Me First get up on an electrical box on the corner of Fremont and 6th with some movie inspired pieces. There She is with a pair of images, on one side we have silent movie star Buster Keaton with his signature blank look on his face. While most artists try to paint color and life into their pieces, its interesting to see someone paint the man known as "The Great Stone Face". Her use of black and white paint just solidifies the overall feel of this piece, and that look is just perfect. Joined by some sort of wood nymph of sorts on the other side of the box, maybe we should know this from a movie but, hmmm we can't place it! On the front we have You Killed Me First with a complete movie poster takeover with this tribute to Frankenstein, but now the Monster is in Las Vegas and terrorizing the streets complete with the Vegas skyline, paste bucket and pieces under his arm. We like how he has included with original credits from the film poster, we love little details like that. Cuz honestly, we are just as big of film nerds as these two artists apparently are.

Ransom Face

Chicago artist Lolo Popacopolous (A.K.A Popacop) recently came though Las Vegas, and we've spotted a few of their "Monkey see" stickers around the 18b Arts District. This design is a crazy mashup of imagery that looks like a collaged image that has been inked and painted, this design is pretty interesting all the way around when you first see it. We don't have a clue what its all about but its eyecatching, even at a distance. It looks like this guy is puking illegible strips of text, even though he has a joint in his mouth which must be tough. There are little weird things all over this guy, piercings, a star mustache and teardrop tattoos, baseball cap, a cigarette behind the ear, money for eyes and that quarter on the forehead. With more smudged and illegible text, we don't know what this guy is saying but somehow we are still listening.

Double Vision

Zork returns to the 18b Arts District with two pieces using two different techniques. First a dayglow orange and black spraypaint version of one of his characters, and a red stenciled piece. We've only seen wheatpastes from Zork thus far, so its pretty cool to see them branching out with different mediums. The orange character is painted over an outline of a bear with inverted crosses for eyes, that look just like the cross on this guys forehead. We wonder if this piece was abandoned in the spur of the moment in favor of using this previously seen character? Then we have a stenciled image of a woman wearing a burka, sprayed on the door and signed. This is like a small showcase of skills of sorts, and did he do both of them right in a row? Now that'll keep ya busy on the street, thats for sure!

Buggley Eyes

A new day and another new face from LaRON Emcee, with an addition from another person. We love this new shorter haired character with the added cloud in her hair, it almost looks like a tiara from afar. But we're not sure where people get off adding bullshit to peoples art, like these wonky eyes some idiot penciled in. We are very much into LaRON's pupiless eyeballs in his artwork, so this is kind of a bummer to see this piece defaced. Cuz lets me honest, if it isn't your artwork and you add to it. You are defacing and that is as bad as capping, can someone please catch these "artists" and teach them the rules of the street. Apparently someone needs to be schooled, and soon! Either way LaRON's artwork can stand on its own, he doesn't need your help. 

Doing Lines

We found this interesting new piece on the corner of Casino and California, a organized tangle of painted lines. It looks to be signed with "IE" but we aren't 100% sure who the artist is, then again we didn't search to hard on the net to find out either. But we gotta say we like the simplicity of this piece, lines drawn with care to make sure they don't intersect. The artwork seems almost familiar to us, we've seen a few different artists use lines like this in their own art. We do enjoy the familiarity and this is a welcome change to the streets, maybe this will encourage more abstract art and less pop art. Don't get us wrong, we do enjoy some pop art but its starting to get a little played out. Thank god we haven't seen a Audrey Hepburn piece here in Vegas! ...yet!

Extended Stay

More additions are being added to the boarded up Art Motel from this years Life Is Beautiful festival, this spot has more out of town artists than local at this point too! Kinda cool! First up, San Francisco based artist Strider gets up with a diamond shaped piece of a praying woman in front of flowers. The image of the woman is interesting as it looks like some sort of digital stencil placed on a vectorized flower image, it has sort of a retro feel without relying on nostalgic imagery. Hinting within art is sometimes way more effective, at least to us. Also showing up late to the party, You Killed Me First and There She Is get up with their new pieces. YKMF with paster of the old Life Is Beautiful logo re-appropriated to remind us that in Sin City evil is also beautiful, I'm sure people will love that one. Lastly There She Is who likes to use the same colors to match her partner with her street pieces, she gives us a redhead with purple lips and blue eyes that will meet your gaze from way down the street. As this year comes to a close, the 18b is slowing down with street art and downtown is gaining speed as the location to get up. We wonder if it'll flip again, or will both spots start to even out artwise. We are guessing that only time will tell, and we can't wait!

Express Yourself

Typical Bandito with another new piece in the 18b Arts District, and it seems they are evolving. This latest work involves carefully ripped layers placed on top of each other to make one multicolored and layered piece, with an image of a reclining woman with her body outlined in ink. We really enjoyed finding this Typical Bandito piece and seeing them take their artwork to a new place, be it one layer at a time. Joined by a Zelot 228 of a body with a television we though was interesting enough to photograph, and it looks like Dead Freaks seems to be defacing each Indecline piece with their toppled Anarchy sign symbol, or maybe trying to get their attention? Yeah, good luck with all that!