Desert Bloom

Wow, well what do you know? What started out as a single flower stuck right in the middle of this frame has blossomed into a full blown bouquet with the help of an unknown artist. When we came upon this piece in the 18b Arts District, it was almost unsettling. We we taken aback at the image and thought of just how could these plastic flowers reproduce and multiple?! Well the answer is obviously that can not and did not do that, but it was a pretty strange few milliseconds of wonder at first. Anyway, more red flowers with new purple and blue highlights that show the age of the original flower that is starting to look sun-weathered. The multitude of different colored eyes seem to stare right back at you as you view this piece, we love this one and how its progressing. We hope to see it continue to develop on the wall, but we wonder how long it'll last? 

Don't Read This

Wait, don't look here! Too late, It's Me It's Erik with an interesting piece right in between The Strip and Downtown. IE hit a bunch of good spots on his latest mission and this spot is a killer heavy traffic spot, we love how many eyes are gonna look at this just to be told to not look. We love street artwork that can interact with the public and this piece does just that, yeah maybe its not the most helpful info but at least its interesting and humorous. Humor can be something that is sometimes lacking in street art, or at least good humor so we are glad to see it back, so to speak. IE with his trademark artistic style here with the black and drawn images on kraft paper pasted onto a vacant building on Las Vegas Blvd. We've seen a few older pieces pretty much turn to dust from riding there from so long in this spot, now the countdown has begun for this piece. Can it go the distance, only time will tell.

No Trespassing

Whoa, another Marty McFly from Back To The Future? What are the chances? Apparently pretty good, but this one looks like it has been on this No Trespassing sign for a damn long time. This artist unknown piece was found in a huge vacant lot in North Las Vegas, we had to park and walk for a bit to be able to photograph it. From a distance this looks like it might have been a stenciled piece, but when we got up close we saw it was a digital image that had been tiled. Quite the colorful and almost patriotic looking piece, but the missing piece in the face makes it feel unfinished to us. If we knew the artist we would investigate and see what is up with that! But we don't, so we won't. A fairly good example of an image that works from distance and from a speeding car, but you can't really make out who it is to be honest. We had no idea who or what it was til we got up close, but it still caught our attention with the reds and blues. As faded as they were, they still were working at catching someones eye.

Double Barn

We spotted another RM "Serene" AKA Skyn3t piece in North Vegas recently, riding on a utility electrical box on the corner of Lone Mountain and Camino Al Norte. Two identical pasters with images of Don Knotts as Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show that has been gladly stuck in syndication since the 70's. With the added words "Freeze Punk!" in the old Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine typeface, later made popular by the punk band The Misfits which kinda seems outta place with the image. No idea how long ago these went up, but the logo top left helps us identify the artist, which is helpful. From the looks of these pieces, they've been there awhile judging by the amount of sun bleaching. Or is this just a printer running out of ink? Either way, its a fairly interesting juxtaposition of image and text. We hardly see any artwork from this artist, and can't help but wonder. Are these leftovers from an artist that used to hit the streets, has this person already moved onto another medium? If we by chance spot a new piece, I guess we'll answer our own question. So, we'll wait and see.     

Sci-Finds

We spotted these pieces from the Los Angeles to Las Vegas transplant street art couple You Killed Me First and There She Is still riding behind a fence in the 18b Arts District. One thing about these two is that you can always count on seeing them together, no matter what their artwork is and no matter where it is. They are a team within the world of street art but also a real couple in real life, and they make it work to their advantage by hitting multiple spots with pieces that use the same theme. This time (to make complete liars out of us) they use completely different inspirations for their artwork, and with a little research we find There She Is inspired to do a crazy hand painted mashup up of silent movie star Clara Bow and The Borg from Star Trek! Next to her is You Killed Me First with a Ouija planchette that incorporates the game board and a message to "Get Up, Stay Up", stained brown and with what looks like burns around the edges. These pieces have been there for awhile from what we can tell, and look to be lasting long. We hope to see more combined efforts of these two artists in the Las Vegas streets, and soon.

Same Bat Time

We caught some newer stickers on a metal utility pole walking around in search of some art, and we just couldn't help but stop and take a photo of this sticker from DANP & ESF. We love the old school Batman design and colors, we aren't much for some other sticker designs most of the time and we think they tend to be either boring or just a mismatch of random images all crowded on one sticker. This one comes off so solid and completely retro, no idea what its about but its such a great design that we are already into whatever those two are selling. Surrounded by other black and white designs from Hype BCS, Sloby and the always on the case and in your face Aware, they almost fade into the background but holy bright stickers Batman! DANP & ESF's image is popping and jumping at you like crazy, a great and eye catching design. Whatever it is, we dig it!

Think Again

UncuttArt with some previously unseen (by us) artwork across from the Coolidge building parking lot, how we missed this or these pieces is kinda funny since we are in this part of town constantly. So if we missed your artwork, then just wait about a year and we'll eventuality find it! More of the same two pasters we've seen from UncuttArt's last visit to town, the Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs images with the abundance of lines that make these feel almost psychedelic in their style and design. A great change up from the same old stencil and modern graphic design seen predominately in the world of street art, throwing it back sometimes is a good thing when enough time passes. You could almost claim you are doing something new if you wait long enough, just bring it back and rewrap and repackage it and you are on well your way.... To uh, something.

Hello, McFly?

Milk The Bunny returns from her East Coast adventure just in time for the Back To The Future themed First Friday event here in Las Vegas. We spotted more than a few of these Micheal J. Fox as Marty McFly prints around the 18b Arts District, we just happened to catch photos of this one above a mural of giant steak left by a unknown artist. MTB aka Omayra Amador has been getting up and getting a lot of press as of late, kudos to any local artist getting up and getting out there! You can see her in the street, in the galleries and even teaching wheatpaste classes in her spare time. Recently hailed as "Best Street Art" by Paint This Desert's Ed Fuentes in the Desert Companion Best Of issue. Working hard and being highly visible can definitely have its advantages, and she is a good example of what can be accomplished with a bit of hard work and talent. 

Can Cap

Damn! Just a few steps away from our last post, we find Poer has been capped! Someone or some crew named B16 did their utmost to cover Poer's name, and any clue to what was on his piece. As much as this looks like a cap, we can't help but wonder if this is just your run of the mill spot jack. Cuz it seems like more than a few artists in town only use this technique. It is always humorous to us when people do that crap, cuz it feels like whomever does it feels their art or whatever can't stand on its own. 9 times outta 10 its just that, someone with weak ass work that is begging for attention without working for it. Is that the case here? Who knows and honestly, who the hell cares? We all get to benefit watching the art war happen here in the Vegas streets, and its all about new art and who is getting up and where. So keep it up, cuz at this point its more interesting than most artists in the galleries. 

The Hateful 8

The battle between wheapaste and aerosol continues downtown with An!lyz Something adding fuel to the fire with these new pieces. We aren't sure if this is a response to the "don't cap real bombers" message that was painted over Drsc0's piece that lasted less than 24 hours, but it sure feels like it when looking at it. These 8 pieces are tiled pretty solidly, which you would think doesn't merit a mention but on the contrary. Tiling seems to be a tough thing with other artists and pieces, so we really appreciate it when art isn't all haphazardly pasted up. It'll be interesting to see how this wall outside the Art Motel develops in the near future, will these new pieces be answered with another capping session? Will it spiral into a art war? I guess we all have to wait and see what'll become of this spot, but we are excited to keep checking its progress.

Rebirth

Well thank God for small miracles! They finally buffed the horrible Coolridge wall and we gotta say it looks way better without all the crappy tags that looked like some first year artists sketch pad. We spotted the first piece on the wall, and it ain't too bad. It comes off like the first flower that blooms years after the bombs drop in some weird post-apocalyptic movie, at least to us it does. This wall became a straight up disaster with all the fighting between wheatpaste and aerosol artists, no idea who the hell won that fight. But the wall DID get buffed a little while after all of the tags went up, so that might be a clue who the city wants to win. Sadly, sometimes the street art scene can get intertwined with gentrification of the neighborhood. Kinda weird how artists find the spots first and then the money comes in and tries to take it all away with Starbucks and the like. We really hope that isn't what is happening here, but we kinda know that it is. Enjoy the streets to yourself while you can artists, and get the hell up!

Rapture

We spotted this very distressed and aged looking paster in the 18b Arts District that has a cryptic coded message. This interesting piece hints at who made and got up with this piece, the artist is actually It's Me It's Erik and now it seems obvious now that we've told you doesn't it? Well, someone else tagged one of his other pieces online, so now the mystery is over and we are glad to finally know who it is. We gotta say that we LOVE how this piece looks old and distressed, this mix of kraft paper, dirt and rust simply make this piece achieve another level. The added effect of wheatpaste running down the dirty city planter make it feel ancient and the added Sharpie writing bring it right back to the now. The unplanned juxtaposition of dirt and art are the perfect mix on the streets, we'd certainly love to see more of this style and union of art and street.

The Dead King

Well, it has been said that good things can't last forever, and that is clearly the case with Jerry Misko's 2009 mural of an slightly askew Las Vegas sign in the 18b Arts District. Someone has taken a bucket of white paint and did a half ass and yet complete buff job on his mural, even following the curve of the artwork as they painted his piece and Indian Giver's large wheatpaste that was next to it. With all the amateur artwork on this building, we gotta say it is a total bummer to see them go. We did happen to notice a fresh buff job in the same color on each sides of this building as we were driving up, and some new murals for what its worth. Someone has decided to comment on this buff by writing "THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING.", which reads pretty redundant. Maybe just the one line might have carried more weight, but what does it even matter now? Both of these pieces are dead, rest in paint.