Watch Out

We spotted this new piece from Drew OTR on an 18b Arts District traffic sign. This placement is obviously perfect for his image of the family from the Immigration highway safety sign. The artist has been using this image for quote awhile now, and with great effect. he is an artist with many styles and uses many mediums to get up in the streets. Be it graffiti, street art, stencils or stickers, he is always getting out and up there. This familiar image of a family running across the freeway brings up a whole entourage of ideas and/or possible meanings behind this, we love that this piece makes us think about quite a few things. We've always said that we love artwork that can be viewed in several ways, and that is most certainly what we have here. Stenciled in black onto the yellow sign right at the crosswalk, this image cannot NOT be seen or denied. We still aren't 100% sure if the artist is getting some local help from another artist to get up, but if so? Great team effort, we can't wait to see more!

All That Glitters

We spotted these unusual pieces on the side of the Coolidge building in the 18b Arts District recently. Three gold spray painted shapes with three crudely painted black outlines, finished off by an additional canvas glued in the middle of each shape. We aren't sure who the artist is, but it does seem oddly familiar to us. The first piece on the left is of a woman that looks to be drawn in crayon or colored pencil, with all sorts of shapes and faces decoupaged in consecutive layers. An added shredded base of orange paper really makes this piece come to life and our favorite of the bunch. The middle piece is of a fiery woman with the text "sometimes I get so freakin angry i just want to scream", ok then. Finally we have this little odd fellow that looks like some sorta of bug or crustacean with those claws on a black and green background. We can't help but wonder if this was a final image we saw from an artist on this day, or was this a piece that had layers added to it over time? Since we have no idea who the artist is, we can't really be sure. But we are sure happy to see new artwork being put up, so keep it up!

The New Boss

Ha ha ha, this is so great!!! Dekoe gets up in the 18b Arts District using Jerry Misko's self-buffed mural as a canvas with great results. After Seattle artist Indian Giver came through town and added one of his 'shopped tattooed Elvis pieces uninvited. Seems like Misko the original artist didn't take to kindly and buffed it himself within a month's time, even going so far to buff his own artwork. But adding the message "THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING." before he was finished, and we thought that was pretty much the last word on this wall. Oh sure we've seen a few random and amateurish things drawn on the blank head of Elvis, but Dekoe's new and updated version just killed it for us! Spraying his signature character face in purple, blue and yellow aerosol and placed perfectly with in the head, but leaving the top blank to use Elvis's hair to make his own. It makes us laugh every time and we appreciate the cleverness of the artist! Finishing it up by spraying "Say hello to the new boss! Same as the ol' boss..." A line made famous by The Who in their song Won't Get Fooled Again is a great way to announce his takeover, and we hope this piece stays just how it is for awhile. Thank you, thank you very much!

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......

The Rules

A little bit ago the entrance of the Art Motel got an aerosol update from Greveone with a giant throwie, only to have Drsc0 get up with one of his hand finished digital prints on the right side a little while later. Well someone definitely took offense and wrote "don't cap real bombers" and signed it over the piece, giving a quick lesson in street art to the artist and anyone that sees it in the street! The politics of street art can get messy and rather ugly if artists cover other artists, and covering a graffiti piece is not a good thing and that is putting it insanely mild to be honest. When we were introduced to the world of street art and graffiti years ago we couldn't believe how many rules there were. Even if they were unspoken, they were still some damn solid guidelines that you needed to follow. Especially if you wanted to stay outta trouble! The gist of it in this case? Do NOT put wheatpaste art on or over graffiti pieces! Yes, there are the rare occasions that an artist works in both styles, but usually the two classes of artists tend to not mix too well.... Again, we are putting it mildly.

  

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!

Saving Grace

Ok well its about time to be honest about this location! It's looking pretty bad lately! Somehow amongst the other artists, this building has turned into the beginners school for street art and graffiti. More and more bad toy tags and disconnected phrases show up on this wall everyday, we don't know how or why local artists are letting this continue! Much less the buffman, we can't believe we are actually hoping the buffman pays this spot a visit! The only saving grace is the brightly colored piece of wood left there and it looks like they spent more time on that than these tags.

Let's Go Halfsies

New Zealander graffiti duo BMD recently got up big with two murals in the 18b Arts District, one of them being this weaselly looking guy sliced in half with a strange yellow cubed patterned coat. With Vegas written in his big blue eyes, this image is bright, colorful and fun! It really is great to see more visiting artists coming through town and leaving their mark with such a varied amount of styles.

An Apple For The Teacher

Coua returns to the 18b Arts District with a new graffiti piece "El Teacher" using his familiar black and white character on a two color background. This latest background has a sort of retro shape, in red and a very interesting dark mustard yellow. Always one to use the existing landscape and/or exterior, Coua uses an unused city value on the building to represent an apple in the teachers hand. Hmm...But I'm not entirely sure I want this guy to teach me anything with the looks of that math equation on his blackboard!

El Beto

Coua is back in the 18b Arts District with another piece from their growing cast of characters, this latest named El Beto is hanging around just waiting to be found and photographed. Coua seems to always use solid black sprayed abstract lines over two bright colors to bring his art to life, and its great to see some quality work back on the crowded Coolidge and First building. It is starting to look a little rough, this is a nice addition!

Jungle Walls

Big thanks to MowgliArt for sending in these photos of some of his latest work. A little backstory: Before we moved from LA to Vegas we would regularly make trips to the 18b Arts District to soak in the local color, art and search for spots to get up. Mowgli is one artist that always stuck with us. We dug it and are glad to showcase his work on our blog. Thanks again for the photos, stay up!

Romantic in Blue

Another Coua piece in the 18b, an abstract female holding a flower and looking decidedly more blue.
This one is just right around the corner from their previous El Carlito piece, maybe these tell us something.
Maybe they symbolize a lost love, or possibly simply trying to find someone to love? Who knows?
But whatever these two are looking for, I hope they can find it! Great pieces. 

Runny Nose

An abstract looking fellow going by the name of El Carlito is hanging around the 18b Arts District.
This new piece from Coua with its use of red and blue paint really makes the figure stand out against the gray,
we especially love how they have incorporated an already existing faucet on the wall as his nose.
Great use of the environment and imagination to make one solid piece.

Heart On The Wall

Found this spray painted double heart logo in the 18b,
I'm not entirely sure if this keeps getting buffed or if this took a few attempts til they were satisfied?

Classic LV Dubs

All Chrome, YoungTrav, Dabs Myla & MDPESQ go huge on Imperial and Main St.
Check it out, a huge photo post to end and inspire your weekend!

Photos you say?

Like taking photos of street art around Las Vegas? We sure do, but we can't capture it all!
See something on the street you like but don't see on here? Snap some photos and send em our way!
We'll post em and give you & the art a ton of love!!! Thanks, from us.... :)

LostVagueUs@gmail.com

The Stencil Network: Life is Beautiful Festival

Some great shots of the work by The Stencil Network pieces in the 18b Arts District.

Benjamin Alejandro Tag

Benjamin Alejandro, who has a show at the Amanda Harris Gallery till mid-next month gets up with a huge tag in the Arts District.

Recycled Propaganda and Dead Girls & Robots

Colab by Recycled Propaganda and Dead Girls & Robots. South of Fremont on 9th.

Stencil Girl

Low to the ground girl in stencil. The placement makes you almost miss it, but when you do discover it, it stands out against the wall and stone.