Locked up

Why would anyone play a trumpet on a Saturday morning...protester? Inconsiderate neighbor? In Downtown Los Angeles you can get used to noise at night, but noise in the morning is another story.

Minor squabbles aside, I want to follow up on the mural that went up in the Arts District on the side of the Shojikiya building. This guy Sebastian Walker has redeemed what is otherwise just-ok. Nice statement about the ugly gated doorway.

Here yesterday, gone yesterday

These folks spent their Sunday afternoon working on this (northeast corner of 3rd & Main) only to have it painted over. I wanted to tell them that history wasn't on their side, but they seemed to be having so much fun.

Paintover

I hope you said farewell to the Swoon, Shepard Fairy, and Becca art on the brick building at the northeast corner of 4th and Hewitt. They've been painted over. I first noticed the new black paint when I went by on Tuesday night, and the color detailing popped up today.

Here's the work in progress from this evening...

And here's some of the collateral damage...

Haltimore

I have mixed feelings about this new mural on the backside of the Baltimore Hotel in the low-lows of Downtown Los Angeles...it livens up the building at the expense of the old painted sign advertising the hotel. No more sign. This looks like the work of JR.

Ecuadork

I have no idea how you bloggers keep up. I'm such a wannabe. Last October we took a trip to Ecuador, including the Galapagos Islands...been meaning to at least post a few photos...

Good

Goonies never say die

El Chapulin Koreano

He's looking after Koreatown...

Raygun

More Ethos

Ethos

Claudio Ethos from Brazil working on something big on Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Joe's Parking finally let him use the lot so he wouldn't have to streeeeetch from the street. From what I hear, it's a gift to Tom Gilmore, who owns the parking garage getting the treatment...

Seven Apple Trees Gang

My earliest graffiti memory dates back to 2nd grade at Hellyer Elementary in San Jose. The Seven Trees neighborhood was in walking distance from school, and to that point my dealings with Seven Trees involved checking out Shel Silverstein and Doctor Dolittle books from the Seven Trees Library.

I used to take the yellow school bus to Hellyer, and Dewey the bus driver would drop us off in the morning with about ten minutes to spare. One morning when Dewey let out the busload of rowdy students, I saw that a crowd of kids had already gathered on the sports field.

That's when I saw it...10-foot VST letters had been hacked out from the grass. My little mind couldn't make sense of the vandalism, and I asked this kid George (the same kid who thought his mother's name was "mom") the meaning of VST. He explained that it stood for Varrio Seven Trees, a gang from Seven Trees. Gang? At that point my point of reference for gangs was the Apple Dumpling Gang, a Disney movie with Don Knotts and Tim Conway.

Opening tomorrow is MOCA's Art in the Streets exhibition...Friday I took a look at the outdoor setup setting up...

Stormtripper

I know it's been up for "a while," but last night I finally got a photo of Mr. Brainwash's painted red sidewalk take on the red carpet...

Clean slate

Atlas, the prolific "Kitty Cat Tagger," was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in County, fined $8,675.38, and ordered to put in 300 hours painting over graffiti around town.

Here's some of his stuff...

This one's from last December...

And it was just recently painted over...by Atlas himself???

Be Pee on the Rosslyn

This popped up a couple days ago on the west side of the Rosslyn Hotel, facing Harlem Place Alley...

Nice, huh? Much better than the pigeon skids that nobody cares to remove. I'd love to see that alley greened up as proposed by a team of UC Santa Barbara students.

Street Artists Collide in Alley

Very exciting things are bubbling in Downtown. Lots of street artists from all over the world are decorating our neighborhood. Banksy for one. Vhils, an artist from Portugal, tops everyone. He created a mural of an old man by peeling away old paint from a parking lot-facing building on the 600 block of Spring Street. Opposite his mural is Jr's (from France) giant-size pix of a (possibly) Asian woman tugging at her eye.

Convenient parking is way back

Banksy's in town to promote Exit Through the Gift Shop, and he's left traces here and there...

Walliver's Army

New year, new graffiti on the oddly shaped building at 3rd and Main in Downtown LA. This replaces the expressive bubbleheads by Midzt that had been up since 2006. I'm the guy who calls the graffiti removal squads when tagging pops up...but I definitely have a soft spot for more creative street art.

Here's a photo from April 2006...