The Beast From Anaheim

We spotted a familiar face on this utility meter while walking around the 18b Arts District. Looking a little like something from a 50's Sci-Fi movie, with the head of Mickey Mouse and the body of a wasp with a rather large stinger. We have a product of mad street scientist Zork, who we haven't seen in the streets in awhile so it is a welcome and frightening sight. He offers us a smiling and happy Mickey who is sorta of showcasing the artists name with his hand, but is he giving a warning with that dangerous looking stinger? We really enjoy this black and white and almost retro looking piece. Zork had really been going large with his pieces and doing some cool new things before he disappeared from the street, so we hope to see more and soon. The utility meter's neighbor is absolutely slammed with so many stickers that we won't even attempt to name any of the people and artists, so just check em out if you get a chance! Or better yet, get some stickers of your own and join em!

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!

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!

Checkered Cone

Directly catty-corner from our last post, we find this collection of mismatched images and art. Below the flyers and ads for local businesses we have peeled stickers and tags of all colors. We can make out a few of them, like we see the I.S.I. tiger image and a Blue Swan Records sticker under a pink tag. The favorite one of ours and also the one to grab our attention is that little ice cream cone sticker. We have not one clue on who this is, or what "Free Cauwod" even means! Honestly, we are pretty much guessing that is what it says. Hmmm, could be the letter D, could be the letter P. But still, a fun little black and white drawn image either way, and we love that checkerboard cone pattern too. We might have to look at more of these pedestrian crossing buttons for sure, seems like there is more action happening here than we thought!

Compliant

Anilyz Something has been one busy guy in the Vegas streets, we are seeing him far and wide in this city. Now he is giving a little bit of help to Houston, Texas artist Thieve to get up on this 18b Arts District dumpster. We are digging the black and white images on the blue and tagged up dumpster, they really pop in your face. With some added red spray paint over the skulls eyes and the phrase "Compliant Silence" stenciled on Thieve's skull, they just look and work great together. The combination of a human skull next to an.....what is that thing, a alien skull or what? Well anyway, they look great together and beckon you to photograph them. We know we've already said it but, Anilyz Something is really going for it with the amount of pieces he is putting out. Combine that will killer high profile spots with quality artwork, and you got a man on a successful mission. Killer work, keep it up!

Neon Nights

There She Is and You Killed Me First hit the 18b Arts District with some large new pieces to announce their return to the street. These pieces have been painted such bright neon colors that we could see them a few blocks away, a technique that these two have used before with much success. We always enjoy how the two artists paint with the same colors to match the others piece, they take being a couple to new levels within their artwork. There She Is offers us one of her painted ladies with her always present large eyes, with all the paint drips all around she appears to be crying. The pieces she paints can have the most forlorn and yet beautiful faces to them, combined with the almost subliminal tears really makes this piece grab your attention. Plus the fact that its about 4 foot tall doesn't hurt either! You Killed Me First with another tribute piece to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. We've seen him use quite a bit of artwork based on the theme park ride, so we are definitely feeling the artists love when we spot them. Using pieces from the Haunted Mansion clock and an eroded typeface from the attraction ride, then adding a distressed and splattered effect by hand to finish it off. These two pieces work really well together, just like these two apparently work well together in real life. Let's hope we see more artwork from them around town, and soon.

Faded

While on another one of our casino adventure debacles, we happened to spot this sticker in the Stratosphere parking garage stairwell. What were we doing hanging out in the stairwell, more than likely we were up to no good. This sticker from KBF "Kant Be Faded Mob" is simple with design and font choice, but it works. You can usually find a good amount of stickers that haven't been found and removed in the casino parking garages around town. With the huge amount of people that travel through this town, its always interesting to stop and have a look. You can always find some cool stuff, as well as some boring and terrible stuff for that matter. But that is pretty much the name of the game, isn't it? Good and/or bad, we enjoy seeing it all. We tried to look up who this was, but couldn't really find anything about who/what/why. So there ya go, can't be faded and can't be found. Gotcha!

Relabeled

The mysterious artist we call Skull Capper has made another wheatpaste run downtown in the Fremont East District. We aren't exactly too sure who this person is but we definitely know their artistic agenda. They like to cap people! Seems like this artists mission is almost solely covering other peoples art, so we kinda figure there must be some artwork covered up on this can. We are pretty much going with the law of averages on this one, and you can't really blame us. Always using the same bad copied image of a white skull, sometimes with an added X and sometimes not. The one thing you just can't deny, is that you can always count on Skull Capper getting up around town. This guy never lets up, and you gotta admire that right? I don't know how capped artists feel about it, but we are enjoying the action on the streets and walls. Joined by a large piece from Anilyz Something, and that one must be new too cuz we see its on top of those others. Nice!

Maintenance

The boarded up entrance to the Art Motel downtown has been on fire lately, lots of back and forth between the buffman and artists. Hell, at some points its pretty much been artist against artist if you wanna get down to it. The war between aerosol and paste is a constant, and will can find yourself in some deep waters if you don't know or care about the rules of street art. But here, the buffman gave Anilyz Something and that Skull Capper person a fresh new canvas to work with. Anilyz Something with the large inverted skull piece that we really have been enjoying seeing around town, we enjoy him regulating his spots even more so. He is making sure that he has a new piece up quick when he gets buffed or capped, and that is a tough hustle to keep up. But he is doing it, and doing it well. No idea if this was a co-op mission between the two artists or not, but we might think so since those skulls aren't covering Anilyz Something's piece. A total assumption on our part, but it does look strange when Skull Capper isn't......Well, capping someone!

Street B.S.

Another new piece from Recycled Propaganda spotted in the 18b Arts District, and he is still Feeling The Bern! This four color piece is subtle in design and yet hard hitting in message, we are digging this cleaner design from Recycled Propaganda we gotta say. The image of Bernie Sanders holding his arm up in almost a protest pose, with added text "The Right Kind Of B.S." This design is a leftover from the Feel The Bern event at Eden Gallery from last month, and is printed on the same reusable sticker material from this post. Which again, makes us wanna steal it from the streets and we wonder if someone has stolen ALL of these designs!? We've said it before, and we'll say it again. These easily removable stickers make it awful tempting to not take them, especially when they have great and strong designs on them. But as you can tell, we just photographed them and left them for Las Vegas fans of street art to enjoy. So get the hell out there and enjoy them!

She Can Do it!

Another trip and yet another new find from Milk The Bunny in the 18b Arts District. It is the familiar face of Rosie the Riveter, the Wolrd War II cultural icon used to represent the American woman working in factories. Just like in the J. Howard Miller Westinghouse version of this poster, we have Rosie showing her muscle and moxie with the words "We Can Do It!". An inspirational image taken over by Omayra Amador and given a MTB makeover of sorts with this smaller print on the Coolridge building. Little things like her bunny ear logo on Rosie's bottom make us smile, cuz sometimes to us the subtle details can make a way bigger picture and we like that. Staying true to her almost psychedelic color pallet, we have her using yellows and pinks to make this piece really work and really her own. Omayra Amador has really let us all know that "She Can Do It" by being so visual with many new pieces updating old spots around town, she makes us feel lazy when we see all the new pieces and spots. Keep it up, cuz you ARE doing it Milk The Bunny!

Found Bottle

Back in the 18b in the parking lot of the Coolridge building, we found this bottle surrounded by tags and pasters. This unknown artist piece caught our attention, but just barely! With all its colors and paint drips, it almost blends right in with the environment. We wonder if the artist intended to blend in somewhat with the background and for that matter, we wonder who the artist is?! We have seen a few different artists use re-purposed bottles as artwork in the Las Vegas streets, but this one is unsigned and was left without a clue as to whom it was. The glass bottle has been painted white and then splattered with a few different neon colors, then literally topped off with a black spray finish running down the sides. This wall has really been the site of a lot of work being done as of late. From local artists painting huge murals, to a whole other set of artists sneaking over at night and getting up with tags and burners. This addition of a tiny bottle installation and a welcome change from the norm, we enjoy that a few artists are using techniques other than spray paint and/or wheatpaste. Variety, that is what we are talking about and that is thankfully what we get! Can't wait to see what this spot offers up next artwise.

18Bern

This past February saw a Bernie Sanders themed event happen at the Eden Gallery in the 18b Arts District full of local Las Vegas artists. The larger of these pieces is actually the ad from said event, and its another one of those temporary stickers like Recycled Propaganda used in this post. So we are assuming it was him that put these up on his last run? Hmmm, could be? Either way these four colorful pieces are holding this spot down past the run of the show. We dig all the different styles between the artists, the main Bernie image is rather striking with its painted gaze meeting yours. We wish we knew who did that main poster image, anyone? From bottom left to right, we have a patriotic Begsonland design with his trademark multiple image tiled pieces. We've actually seen knockoff versions of his designs around town, yeah they are that good! Next to him we have an artist unknown image but the message is certainly known with this one! Dump Trump with a....well a big stinking dump on his head, and using the infamous "immigrants crossing" image for a background is rather effective. Then last but not least, we have Dekoe with his trademark image done in purple and green. We aren't too sure if this piece has anything to do with the others, but it fits in the corner making it all feel symmetrical and we dig that. We admit we aren't that political, but we love these politically themed pieces and hell we even made it out to this show!

Totem Tagger

We found another leftover from last year's Life Is Beautiful festival, and it is another D*Face! We can't believe how much work he did last year, we are still finding previously unseen pieces of all kinds. This time we found a tag on an electrical pole in front of his huge "Peace Gun" mural off Fremont Street. Using the same gray color can he used in his drop shadow in this piece, he took a moment too keep it street by catching an illegal tag in the middle of painting a paid mural. Which is how a lot of high profile artists do it, get a paid gig and get up on the side. We've seen D*Face do 4-5 street installations around town when he'd have a show at a gallery, and we mean good sized pieces ranging from wheatpastes to 5 foot tall headstones! This artist is pretty much fearless when it comes to his artwork and his range of styles, an artist that bridge the gap between street and galleries like it is nothing. We hope we can keep finding more pieces as the days pass, I doubt we will have a problem.

Pink Bunny

We found another piece from the ever-present Milk The Bunny on the streets of downtown Las Vegas, this time we get a pink uni-bunny with a bright yellow hat. The artist also known around town as Omayra Amador has been getting up more and more, and doing some solid work in the most visual places. This piece we found on the edge of some construction on Fremont Street and across from the The El Cortez is a damn good spot to be seen my locals and visitors alike! From what we can tell she seems to be using more color prints more so rather than hand painted as of late, and we can't even hate on that. Well since we caught her gallery show at Twisted Artist Gallery in the 18b Arts District. She had some of the original pieces that she has used for the street and they are like quadruple the size of what she is using in the street, fairly impressive. But back out on the streets, she is still doing work and doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. Keep it up and stay up!

Psychedelic Lamp

Well it has been awhile, but on the other side of this post we find Avantarded with a piece that we can only describe as some sorta psychedelic lamp or some piece of surreal furniture. This building has only had a few street art pieces on it and actually even less advertisements, if you can even believe that! Avantarded uses his trademark black ink on Kraft paper here once again, but completely going off in a cosmic direction this time. From what we've seen over the years, there has always been elements of space and cosmic themes in his artwork and we always enjoy peering into these small windows into other worlds. When looking at this piece, it almost has a form and identity of its own that it is trying to convey to you as you pass by. Is it trying to look as human as possible to get you to move closer til it grabs you in its clutches mentally and possibly psychically?! Better stay a few feet away just in case! Found on Las Vegas Boulevard, between the Strip and Downtown.

A Warning

A new warning has appeared in the 18b Arts District, and it is pretty damn awesome. Hack The Mack gets up with a Neighborhood Watch type sticker, only his program supports all suspicious activities! At first glace we thought this was just a normal sticker and we are glad we took another look, cuz its hilarious. A hooded man with the name Trap Man emblazoned on his ski-mask greets you with a smile under the text warning, with all the correct colors to make this sticker really work. After some investigation, we found out that this is a sticker for some rapper or musician or whatever. Which kinda sucks, cuz we feel that this is far more interesting as a piece of artwork instead of another advertisement. But then again, it did grab our attention and held in for a good while. Well, until we figured out who and what it was for. But hey looks like this sticker design worked either way, so you fully got us this time. Nice job!

Roots Radical

Another trip around town and a stop in the 18b Arts District reveals a new piece of art from Recycled Propaganda. A defiant blue fist thrusting out of the ground, attached to a group of growing roots with the text "Political Revolution". Sort of a greener take on one of those old propaganda posters from the past, but updated to a time where we almost need to look at ourselves more so than the person next to us. We have to mention we are enjoying the hell outta Recycled Propaganda getting up in new spots and being more visual, we love to see artists push other artists to get up and stay up. That is just what RP has been doing as of late, and like we said earlier. We are enjoying the hell outta it and his new artwork pieces! Upon closer inspection we found out this wasn't a wheatpaste though, it was a print made on some reusable sticker material. Kind of weird, but then again kind of cool since any person could just take it home and put it on their wall. Which has been a problem for some artists in other cities, pieces just stolen from walls and resold means pissed off artists. But will we see people taking more artwork from the streets with stuff like this? We really have no idea, but with this reusable material. It is quite tempting, even to us!!

Blackened Bones

Anilyz Something has been going back and forth with different artists on this spot, and for some time now. But he is the one that is up and holding this spot down right now, amongst the tags with his trademark skull logo. We really like the inverted skull look with these larger pasters, it really pops and looks great on top of that dark red door. The surrounding tags somehow help this look like a finished piece or something, they almost make it symmetrical. We always enjoy when pieces interact with each other, and especially when its unintended as it is here. This spot on the old Western Hotel exterior is a great spot, but it also gets a quick art to buffed turnaround which makes it a great place to check for new artwork when you are downtown. So make sure to add it to your list, artists and street art enthusiasts alike.