Lately, I haven't seen anything new or good pop up around here and since I haven't heard anything from the local community I don't think there has been any anywhere in the area either.
This new addition is right in my neck of the woods though.
It's huge, it's nice, and it was commissioned by the land owner as well. That's a big win!
They aren't yet finished with it, you can tell that the hat there is yet to be completed.
I wish I had been a bit more proactive because I just happened to be nearby when the artists were speaking to the building owner.
From the moment that this rather large building was completed, there have been people coming by and putting shite tags on it. I think the building was only finished for a couple of days before the first one appeared. Then that attracted more goons with no talent to do the same thing. The next thing you know it was all the way down the side.
Stuff like this:
This is the adjacent property but the person who owns this building with the good one on it, doesn't own that spot, so perhaps he left it alone because it isn't his property and therefore he has no claim to altering it.
Perhaps this last one sheds some light on how huge this actually is.
I overheard a conversation between the artists and the owner and what they told him was true as far as most taggers and street-artists are concerned. He said something along the lines of "if we cover the entire wall with something big and good, other people will leave it alone because they have respect for the other artists." As strange as this sounds considering that most of the tags anywhere in the world are actually vandalism for the most part, the people who are committing these petty crimes actually DO have respect for other artists and will not paint over or deface anything that someone else has already done. Since I live near this building and see it every day, I will be able to witness first hand if this holds true.
If we are lucky, this sort of things could catch on for the entire neighborhood and other property owners could follow suit.
If you read my postings you maybe already know about how there once was an authorized street art park nearby and someone put a little coffee shop in the middle of it and it became a sort of tourist attraction as people enjoyed coming by and watching people who have spray talent do that sort of thing. For whatever reason, the land owner of that spot kicked everyone out and put up a fence surrounding the now completely unused property. Thankfully, the pieces that were put in place before he erected the fence have not been painted over. I will take a trip by there sometime soon and have another look.
Maybe, just maybe, this new addition in the neighborhood will encourage that owner to reverse course. There really could be a good business opportunity in there for someone that wanted it.