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!

Life Changes

Well well well, here we are on our 400th Lost Vague Us blog post! We just wanted to thank everyone that takes the time to have a look at our site, we are trying our best to cover this fast growing scene while we grow right along with it. Thanks to all the artists that got up here in Las Vegas and gave us new content to post, be it from another state or the local artists. Thank you! Here we have Typical Bandito with a new piece in the 18B Arts District, another hand finished and layered image. Using an Bleu de Chanel cologne advertisement as his base, he gives the old ads new life with colors and black lines. The dark color and background really pops off the turquoise wall, and make the mess next to it look....well a little more messy. This time the artist has added the text "It changes things life" which reads a little disjointed to us, it kinda sounds like a quote from Yoda which makes it all the more bizarre. The addition of teeth to the mans face make it look pretty comical as well, maybe he is trying to give us a message about life and humor? Only the artist knows for sure, but has our attention once again.

Skullcap

It looks like the same artist hit the 18b Arts District with their digital skull pasters, and ended up capping people all the way around the block. But this one in particular really got our attention, since it looks like he capped a canvas that someone affixed to the wall. We aren't too sure which artist put this canvas piece up, but we sure know who capped it....sorta! We have the same skull used on previous pieces, updated with them capping what looks like a Warhol Marilyn Monroe. Finished up with a black X sprayed on the entire thing, which is something new but these are still fairly uninspired and weak pieces. Unless we are missing some big part of the picture here, wouldn't be the first time either. These photos are from a little bit ago, and since then almost all pieces of art on the Coolridge building have been capped by a ton of aerosol tags. So finally the capper got capped, but who'll be the next victim? We honestly can't wait to see what happens next, and to whom!

Street Testing

We found this series of images that resemble Rorschach tests under the decaying Indecline piece in the 18b. These artist unknown pieces look sorta like someone spray painted some parts or shapes and liked the leftovers, or these could look way different to you depending on your psychological make up. We've been looking pretty hard for anything to post on the building on Coolidge and 1st, you have to read between the lines with all the crap all over that place. Seems like artists are kinda letting their pieces go and hitting other spots since people are just writing their own shit on other peoples art. Sadly the 18b Arts District is rife with spot jackers and people that think adding some bullshit stencil or tag to another artists piece is somehow ok. We've seen one of the same stencils used on these walls in an artists artwork during a First Friday event, in fact they pointed it out to us as we walked by. "This is my artwork!" "Uh, sorry" was our only reply.

Puzzle Action

We found another missing piece of the puzzle, and it was right under our noses the whole time!  Local artist, singer and pizza lover Dan45 has been leaving these mysterious orange puzzle pieces around town. We've spotted a few and wrote about them here and here, but we are kinda in disbelief that this piece was in the 18b and we never saw it! Til now! This guy must have been riding for almost a year in this well hidden (from us) spot, and still looks great for the amount of time and elements its endured. A testimonial to Dan45's artwork and craft, cuz its pretty damn tough to get a piece to be interesting, good AND durable. Kudos!

Face Bones

There has been an explosion of artwork in the 18b in the past few months and its been a mixed bag of quality to be sure. From established street artists to first timers spraying their first hurried stencils, but this piece seems to be collab from two of the latter artists. A sprayed face surrounded by a stencil of skull and bones surrounding it to... I guess help disguise those can skills, we're guessing. So damn, it might be one artist after all, just using two techniques poorly. But that is an interesting circle bone effect around the stencil, kinda cool.

Paint It Black

The mysterious artist known as B3 opens a door for us in the 18b Arts District. This piece is quite rich in detail and a ton of possible hidden meanings.....Or is that just us reading into stuff? Well anyway, this hand drawn piece looks like it took a bit of time to finish. It is always a great to see an artist takes their time on an illegal piece, be it paint, paste or ink. We enjoy it all and this piece is no different. 

Paint By Numbers

We found this "caged bird" piece glued (we guess, we didn't try to pull on it) to a wall in the 18b Arts District. A small white canvas with a straight up store bought stenciled image on it, the word POP written on it, colored dots and a wax seal for some reason. The unknown artist signed it before they left it, but we can't even read that signature. A mash up of styles, techniques and colors. Kinda has a childlike innocence to it though, hope that is what they were going for.

Combo Hits

Indecline and 4matr get some combo hits off Main St. in the 18b. From what we've seen, these two have been on a West Coast mission hitting everything in sight! Indecline with their walking business devilman and 4matr with color images of Micky Mouse's fist holding cash, with his logo tiled in the background. These two pieces are large, clean and look damn good, not only cuz they are pretty much the only pieces on this street. But cuz they are quality, something that wins over quantity every damn time. Well, with us that is.

Spray Paste

We recently came across this image of a Montana Hardcore 2 spraycan pasted to an old 18b electrical box. Yup, you read that right. A wheatpasted image of a spraycan! To top it all off, this is an image straight from an online catalog that hasn't been altered in the slightest. Well, unless you count those Sharpie tags. Kind of an interesting choice to leave the clear cap on the can, still feels like an advertisement with the stock image though. 

Summoning Spirits

We recently spotted this piece on the Coolidge and First building in the 18b Arts District. A small black and white collage image of what appears to be a murder scene, if look closely and you can see the shape of an reclining female head! That subtle little detail completely makes this piece for us, but then its sorta pushed too far over the top with a incomplete black fill-in, red drips and text spelling out Invoke!... It kinda reminds of us some old high school satanic stoner graffiti or something, kinda interesting!

Professional Weirdos

Avantarded; with his Professional Weirdos section of his collab with Olsenink on this wheatpaste mural of sorts in the 18b Arts District. Using his black and white on Kraft paper style with a wide selection of characters done in subtle different styles, perfectly clean lines alongside beautifully splattered sections make this piece come alive with all its detail. This wall at Charleston and Casino is gaining strength with the addition of such pieces, it is great to see Las Vegas street art move outward into increasingly bigger areas.

Perched

Olsenink returns to the 18b Arts District on a recent mission with Avantarded, both with their largest intricate pieces that we've seen thus far! Olsenink with a colorful piece that gives us a possible look into the empty Charleston and Casino Center building. Six windows with three bird type characters having what appears to be a rather good time drinking. With a beautiful night sky looming behind them its any wonder why they'd be looking out at us onto the street, maybe there is some beautiful metaphor we've missed? Maybe sometimes a good time is just a good time.

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.

Before & After

Milk the Bunny held a small birthday party for Albert Einstein in the 18b Arts District, well actually it is another one of her hand painted pieces but it was put up in celebration of the theoretical physicist's birthday this past month. Using Arthur Sasse's famously whimsical photo of Einstein sticking his tongue out and with her trademark bunny ears, this is a wonderful and fun piece to find.....Now seems to be aging with the help of others on a return visit in the last photo.

Street Anime

Atomsk returns to the 18b Arts District with another large sized piece. An image of Satsuki Kiryuin, one of the main characters in the Anime cartoon Kill la Kill, stenciled in white & red spray paint and finished in what looks like a Sharpie...or some sort of black pen! We gotta say that is a technique we've never seen used to finish a street piece, interesting!

Garbage Face

Down the alley between Casino and Main we found this digital print of a painting, or is it a print of a digital painting. Hmmm?.. Well it is a pretty cool artist unknown find in the 18b Arts District! The artwork kinda reminds us of some sorta weird updated Thomas Nagel piece, like a messy version with a similar palette possibly? Either way, this piece pasted to a garbage can is kinda retro and kinda cool.

Emcee Girl

Another LaRon Emcee hand painted piece spotted from his most recent run through the 18b Arts District.
A beautiful scarlet lipped woman with short black hair with his recurring iris and pupil-less eyes on the corner of Boulder and 1st. Smoke escaping her open mouth with a detailed group of people drawn next to her left eye, just springs forth a wealth of questions and possibles of who they are and what they might stand for. Great stuff!

Street Maintenance

Local artists There She Is and You Killed Me First return to the 18b Arts District to reclaim the wall on Charleston and Casino. These two artists have hit this spot numerous times, only to return with new pieces whenever they get buffed or removed. There She Is with a piece from her Medusa and her Gorgon‬ sisters triptych that can be found slithering around town. Joined by You Killed Me First with a huge and vintage looking Ouija planchette to help you connect to the other side.

Painted Lady

Olsenink returns with a new piece, a beautifully detailed image of a woman drawn in ink then brought into Illustrator for color. Hair filled with birds, flowers in her eyes, her face caught between pleasure and pain. A very striking and wonderful image! More great artwork from Olsenink for you to find in the 18b Arts District, looks like a few attempts to take this piece have been made and I don't blame you. Not at all!