The Cleaners

We spotted a couple of new hand painted pasters from There She Is and You Killed Me First in between downtown and The Strip. Right in front of Super Cleaners, on Las Vegas Blvd and Gass to be exact. Since relocating from Los Angeles to Las Vegas a few years ago, these two have been working together hand and hand in the streets to make their presence known. Be it with small black and white pasters or with huge neon colored pieces, they are felt on the streets to be sure. There She Is offers us an image of the Gorgon sister better known as Medusa, with her trademark large eyes and pouty lips make this a striking portrait. Complete with snakes slithering around on her head as hair, she beckons you closer with her gaze to meet your fate. What will it be, hmmm? You Killed Me First continues his tour of Disneyland (so to speak) with another on of his Haunted Mansion plaque takeovers. YKMF has been using the Disney theme park as inspiration for street art for years, and apparently he isn't going to let up any time soon. It seems to us that these two have been inspired as of late, as we keep spotting new pieces from the duo around town. We can't wait to see what new and well, sometimes warped new artwork they will get up with. Stay tuned!

Headless Children

At first glace we were kinda horrified at this latest piece, but after closer inspection it wasn't some kid cut in half like our warped minds thought.. Well it IS technically, but it is half of a whole piece from Milk The Bunny. Had we not caught her show at Twisted Gallery, we might have not known this was a smaller version of her "Swinging Baby Omy" canvas piece from said show. This self portrait of the artist as a small child was also used to promote her show, and we just happened to catch it on the street. It was kinda tough to spot on this wall on 1st, cuz that spot is getting jam packed with artwork of all kinds. Some great, some good but seemingly mostly bad. So to us, this is a little bright spot on the wall or window rather. The artist has this to say about this piece, "Swinging Baby Omy depicts the magic of being free". We can relate to the feeling of being young and free, but at this point its just a feeling to relate to with us. Artwork can transport you to a different time and/or feeling, but sometimes you just need to know where to look. Be it in the world or within yourself, and this time we found it!

Corner Crossing

We found another new piece is from Drew OTR in the 18b Arts District, on the corner of Boulder and 1st. This spot gets a lot of action from what we've seen and keeps changing and changing. New pieces will show up, pieces get removed and pieces get replaced and so on. Seems like someone finally figured out that Begsonland piece was printed on one of those removable stickers, and took it right on the pole! The funny thing to us is that the most consistent piece is advertising a show thats already over. And it is made from the same sticker material! Guess no one wanted to try to take that one, or maybe they are too scared since its a high profile spot? People put it up, so people can take it. Don't be scared. I guess we will see if anyone takes us up on that offer, seems like they might have in the past since the others we've mentioned are now missing from the street. Damn, does that make us half accountable for its disappearance? Oops!

Dead Flowers

The wall on Coolridge has been getting its fair share of time in the spotlight, as its being hit on the regular by the same local crew. Looks like the buffman wants to get into the game, cuz they have been hitting back and bringing out the old gray paint to cover tags and throwies left and right. But these framed flowers somehow alway survive wave after wave of paint and buff, only to appear as if they have sprouted up once again in the 18b Arts District. It almost looks ghostly all alone, and surrounded by a completely buff gray wall. A few lines are still viable on the edges of the piece, but it looks awful lonely there by itself. I bet we won't have to wait long for another round of graffiti, cuz that Vegas crew is making the rounds. But then again, so is the Buffman. So good luck with that, and watch your back!

Neighbors

We recently noticed the stenciled Grandpa Munster piece that has been riding forever in the 18b Arts District has some new neighbors, or spot jackers depending on who you ask. To the left we have some barely legible text in bright pink that reads "Remain", kinda hard to remain somewhere when you didn't really finish the job of spraying your piece, no? Then to the right we have a little tighter piece with this 50s styled image of a burning match, with quite a lot of overspray around the edges of their stencil though. The older Grandpa Munster piece even after all this time, still looks great and makes these new additions pale in comparison. The purple burning match isn't all that bad, it just kinda looks like a burning french fry to us. Kinda weird, but we get it. Now, the real question is will we have to wait another full year before someone else joins this crew? We'll see......

Gone Fishin'

We spotted these beautiful Koi fish while taking a stroll around the Coolridge building in the 18b. Just one glance at these and we instantly knew they were from The Stencil Artista, the details and beautiful blended colors gave it away. Using what looks like house paint as a blue base, he makes these little splashes (no pun intended) of color to make puddles for the Koi. Then a white base for the body and then our favorite part, the beautifully done gradients of red, orange and gold! This little touch just makes these pieces a step above others. Finished off with a black layer of details like scales and eyes. The Stencil Artista proudly advertising that he uses "No Printers,No Machines, No Technology! Everything is drawn, cut, and painted by hand!".  We aren't the hugest fans of some of the stencil pieces we've seen around, and especially when they are poorly done with blown out lines and the like. But these to us are straight up quality and this talent just can't be denied. We want to see more!

Tiled

Dekoe returns to the 18b Arts District to get up with this tiled piece on the artistically explosive wall on 1st. Dekoe has made a huge mark on Las Vegas with his artwork, and the thing we dig about him is that he uses anything and everything at his disposal. This time using his signature character in different colors up top, and tiling a larger black and white piece below. We've seen him get up with wheatpaste, tags, stickers, aerosol and pretty anything else you can think of! He works hard and he works a lot from what we have seen, so its definitely not going unnoticed. Also below Dekoe we have Drew OTR, we have been seeing more and more of him lately and we aren't sure its him getting up alone or if this was a co-mission. Either way, we are enjoying seeing this image in this city. Drew On The Run has been getting up in and around Southern California for a long while now, and its awesome to see that he has zero plans on stopping. The cool thing about these pieces is that they are both from artists that use a multitude of mediums to get up with, so it is pretty cool to see them up on the same wall with possibly the same paste.