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!

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.

Leftovers Are Beautiful

This past Life Is Beautiful festival brought numerous street artists through town, including high profile artists like D*Face. As the months go by we keep finding different versions of his poker chip character around town, and we just spotted this one downtown at the corner of 7th and Stewart. This was just one of many pieces D*Face placed around town during his town here, but the thing that we can't figure out is. When did this Teacher piece go up and how the hell did we miss it?! It actually looks pretty recent and looks in better shape than D*Face's piece, so maybe we got the chance to catch this one before it was taken and/or buffed. What a great find, as we are big fans of both artists and we are more than happy to see them in the Las Vegas streets.

Extended Stay

More additions are being added to the boarded up Art Motel from this years Life Is Beautiful festival, this spot has more out of town artists than local at this point too! Kinda cool! First up, San Francisco based artist Strider gets up with a diamond shaped piece of a praying woman in front of flowers. The image of the woman is interesting as it looks like some sort of digital stencil placed on a vectorized flower image, it has sort of a retro feel without relying on nostalgic imagery. Hinting within art is sometimes way more effective, at least to us. Also showing up late to the party, You Killed Me First and There She Is get up with their new pieces. YKMF with paster of the old Life Is Beautiful logo re-appropriated to remind us that in Sin City evil is also beautiful, I'm sure people will love that one. Lastly There She Is who likes to use the same colors to match her partner with her street pieces, she gives us a redhead with purple lips and blue eyes that will meet your gaze from way down the street. As this year comes to a close, the 18b is slowing down with street art and downtown is gaining speed as the location to get up. We wonder if it'll flip again, or will both spots start to even out artwise. We are guessing that only time will tell, and we can't wait!

Late Check-In

The now boarded up entrance to the Art Motel from Life Is Beautiful is hosting an art show of its very own, with a growing number of artists hitting this spot. Surrounded by Apexer's beautiful spray paint mural, Voxx Romana, Skam, Drsc0 with a number of unidentified artists all find their perfect place on the makeshift wall. We always love the difference of artwork in a random grouping of street art, from prints to painting to tags to stencils. It seems like we've got a lot of styles all working together to make this spot happen. We wonder if this place with start to gather some strength with more artists joining in, but we guess only time will tell. Hell, these photos are from a few days ago. It might already be gone before we get back out to take more photos, lets hope not!

Busted

Life Is Beautiful is over but we still have the artwork living on in the streets, Like this D*Face piece put up while he was in town for this years festival Personally we find these pieces far more interesting than the legal murals, and lucky for us D*Face likes to put up an assortment of artwork when asked to do a mural. We've seen him do street pieces outside of his shows that have been just as intricate as anything inside the gallery, there would be a show, a mural and different street pieces. Him taking these extra steps keeps him absolutely legit in the street art world, even now that he has moved onto such bigger and worldwide medium. Plus quality can and does go a long damn way and that is precisely what D*Face has in his artwork. Quality!

Street Magic

We know, we know! Another post about that damn Banksy "Mobile Garden" truck?!?! Just bare with us and let us take another look at the infamous piece that paid a visit to this years Life Is Beautiful festival, and for a reason dammit! When we heard a piece from Banksy would be making an appearance we made a point to try to have a private visit, and luckily we got the chance the night before the festival started and snapped a few bad photos. When we came across the piece we hit the Internet to double check it was the same truck and low and behold it was! All of the same tags were all there, all the same colors and little details were all correct, and then!.. We noticed the entire truck had been sealed with some sort of finish coat or sealant. Upon first glance it looks just like another truck with various tags all over it but apparently great care has been taken to ensure it will look the same at each viewing. We watched the collection of stickers and random tags it would receive each night the festival was open, then to return to find it magically restored each morning. All of it! Wow, that is some damn impressive forethought to be able to resurrect your piece in a pure state each day! Kudos to Banksy, now you know why he/they make the big bucks!

Illegal Is Beautiful

Another year of Life Is Beautiful brings another round of new legal murals, which is always pretty cool.
But the best thing is that most muralists started as street artists, so that means they also wanna get up with different pieces other than their murals. Like this D*Face we found walking the Life Is Beautiful grounds last night, sticking with his Vegas chip theme we find that this year that the little guy crapped out. With D*Face logos falling outta his turned out pockets, with little touches like one logo landing on the sidewalk we understand why D*Face continues to rise in the art world. You can really see and understand the quality of his artwork when you see it in a street art environment, like we said we always enjoy the huge murals. But smaller and more intimate piece like this are always gonna be the true winners with us, stay tuned for more 2015 Life Is Beautiful posts!

Branded

Visual Bluff and Indecline team up for a downtown mission, hitting those damn leftover spray cans from Life is Beautiful. To us the cans look almost as good as D*Face's cans, but there are too many inconsistencies that just don't match his level of craft for us to believe they are the real deal. Both artists uses large wheatpaste images to give these cans a much needed update. They have a finished and almost official branded look with these perfectly placed logos popping off the drab concrete. Some great quality stuff from these two, time for us all to step up our game! 

In Ascent

Indecline goes huge with this giant wheatpaste the side of the Western, right off Fremont Street.
Not sure if this artwork was part of the Life Is Beautiful festival or if this is an illegal piece.
Either way, to us this is how good street art is done. Strong design, able to be interpreted several ways,
not caked with paste, put up straight and with care. (We sometimes can't believe how many artists miss these simple things.) It is nice to see that the Las Vegas street art scene is still building momentum, but!
Indecline shows us that we are all gonna need to step it up a notch or three to keep up! Nice!

Two Faced Team

You Killed Me First and There She Is team up to give concert goers an alternative to commercial logos
and an overkill of advertisements with new bright and colorful pieces for the Life is Beautiful festival.
There She Is with her hand painted face of Medusa and her head of snakes inviting you closer to your doom,
and You Killed Me First combining an intense stare with neon colors assault your eyes on the downtown streets.

No Trespassing

Another year, another round of new Life is Beautiful murals but lets stay focused on the illegal artwork.
D*Face's Card Shark stencil pieces have been riding since last year, they look so solid and blend perfectly with the scenery that the buffman keeps missing them. Olsenink up top with a larger color sticker of a hairy legged women joining in on the fun, with Missy Elliot lyrics "Put my thang down, flip it and reverse it." Found downtown.

Beautifully Destroyed

Last year's Life is Beautiful festival brought in some amazing artists from around the globe into Vegas,
we usually don't like to post legal pieces but when the art and talent are undeniable its a given!
Portuguese artist Vhils goes big downtown on 7th with his unique technique of painted portrait images.
Then he carves the image into the wall, often with just a hammer and chisel! Impressive piece and style.

Red Doors On Fremont

A set of doors were stenciled onto red panels on the closed entrance of the Western Hotel on Fremont,
to us it gives the hotel an old theater or concert venue exit type feel. Artist unknown, but we love it!

The Girl With Stabbie Hands

Another find in the alley off Fremont Street, this area keeps getting hit more and more!
This time with a nicely distressed paster with the hashtag stabbiehands on a tag filled recycling trash can.

C.J. Phone Home

C.J. The Kid gets up with his trademark snail image on a... Dare I say it?...
An actual working payphone downtown?! Not used to seeing those, nice! lol

Warning!

D*Face stencil spotted in Downtown Vegas, riding with Civilian paster on an abandoned building.

D*Face is Betting on Red

D*Face stencil of a walking chip on an abandoned building in downtown Vegas, cute little red guy.

Downtown D*Face

D*Face goes big for Life Is Beautiful Festival.