2012 Best Street Art Blog - MELROSEandFAIRFAX (#1 in the USA - #3 in the World!)

All the hard work put into running the blog paid off this year, and the award for Best Street Art Blog in the USA goes to MELROSEandFAIRFAX!  While 'Best' might be subjective, M&F is objectively ranked the #1 street art blog in the USA, and # 3 in the entire world!~

This is a HUGE victory for the little guy.  Its like David and Goliath.  This is like Hoosiers when the little guy wins an unlikely victory against giants.  The rankings show that M&F has championed a local community, and how the street art in one neighborhood can draw more online traffic than the biggest names painting the largest walls in the world!  

The reason for our success is that M&F takes a lot of pride in being the most 'street' of any street art blog anywhere.  Other sites feature the biggest name artists in the world, which is great and necessary for the genre to progress.  What other blogs do is awesome.  This isn't a competition and props to all the blogs out there documenting the scene. The other blogs holding it down all over the world do an amazing job and and we love to check them for that very reason, to see what the biggest names in the world are doing.  But M&F's recipe for success is unique.  Instead of chasing the big names around the world, M&F has chosen to focus on what we believe street art is about, a local focus on the neighborhood streets.  When we started this blog, we never imagined that it's online presence could compete with all the amazing street art blogs in the world, and we never intended it to.  M&F started with a simple goal to attempt to document the ever changing action on the streets, and try to capture street art before it disappeared.   

When M&F started there was no one else focusing on local street art the way we do.  In the relatively short time that this blog has been running, things have changed dramatically in terms of coverage on the streets.  Social media sites like Twitter and Instagram have allowed anyone and everyone to start capturing and sharing street art finds.  It is extremely unusual that M&F has been able to build itself up to the stature we have achieved, even though we have essentially neglected social media.  

So why has M&F been so successful?  We believe that it is because readers love to follow the action of the streets.  M&F is based in Hollywood, and the action on the streets is like an ongoing mini-series.  And M&F doesn't just post a picture, we tell the storyline.  

Its not just the drama, but after spending so much time on the streets M&F is tapped to the pulse of what is happening, and we have accurately forecast the general direction of the street art movement.  For instance, even last year when street art was still boiling at a feverish pitch, M&F accurately predicted that street art had peaked and there would be a let down this year.  2012 was the morning after to 2011's wild run in Los Angeles.  That said, 2012 was a great year for street art in Los Angeles.  The scene was very active but much more relaxed than the crazy swirling hype which surrounded street art in 2011.  The hype toned down, and perhaps the art slowed down, but everything is relative, and a 'slow' year in LA is still booming.  

M&F's 2013 prediction is that street art will continue to grow and develop in every country around the globe and this genre will eventually be recognized as the largest art movement the world has ever experienced.  Right now, relatively speaking, things have calmed down.  Street art is still hot within its own scene, but it does not have the same hold on the mainstream mind.  This is the lull before the next big boom.  Street art will blow up again, and when it does, just like the artists who put in the work before the boom, people like Banksy and Shepard Fairey, are looked up to as the founders and pioneers of the movement.  We predict that the ground work is being set now, and the next time street art gets huge, the artists who are putting in work now will reap the rewards and be seen by the future generations as the forefathers of the movement.   

BIG thanks to all the artists and fans in Los Angeles who have contributed to the art, the scene, and the success of this blog.  We love you.  Stay up!

Check out more of 2012's Best of LA Street Art:

Best Street Art Pieces 2012 for the Huffington Post

Best Sticker Artist of the Year

Best Graffiti Artist of the Year

Best Street Artist of the Year

And click the jump for full Street Art Blog Stats:

Best Graffiti Writer of the Year 2012

For most people, graffiti is a phase.  Many young hungry artists come charging out hard at first, only to eventually burn out, get bored, or get busted.  Getting up is a hard job with very little direct payoff, and even the most hardcore writers generally don't last longer than a few years on the streets.  Even then, the few brave graffiti artists who get up over a long period of time seem to switch back and forth between periods of getting up, and then down time, and then getting back up again.  But M&F has never met a graffiti artist who has a stronger passion to get up than 2012's Best Graffiti of the Year, Jaber.  To Jaber, getting up is a lifestyle.  Jaber gets up worldwide and smashes hard everywhere.  And his game is complete.  Jaber is perhaps most known for his graffiti pieces on trains.  But he also holds it down on the streets, even inventing new crazy fat tags, and Jaber stickers are everywhere.

The first time M&F ever saw Jaber's graffiti was way back in 2005.  We were living in Boulder, Colorado at the time and Jaber caught a hot spot right along the freeway with one of his signature White Ninja graffiti heads.  M&F did not know this was Jaber's work at the time.  In fact, as we saw this head repeatedly over time during the years preceding and following, for the longest time we thought it was a general kind of iconic graffiti character, kind of like how many different artists will paint variations of Bode's wizard animations.  But that isn't the case.  Sometimes biters will copy his characters, but Jaber is the only one painting his heads all over.  He is just so prolific that it seemed like an army of artists painting the emblem that has now become iconic.  

Jaber started painting graffiti in 1991 and he hasn't stopped since.  With the current state of online graffiti videos and Youtube hustlers, sometimes young bucks appear to be seasoned graffiti veterans when really they are just better promoters.  Jaber has been going at this hard for longer than some young writers have been alive.  He has scored some incredible gigs like going on tour with Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Pharcyde, LL Cool J and many more.  Jaber is a legend within the graffiti community, but he has never gotten that pot of gold that some street artists hope for.  Still, Jaber keeps getting up and keeps painting.  Jaber has never left the streets.  He has never taken a break off for down time.  Why does he do it?  He does it for all the right reasons.  When M&F asked Jaber what drives his insatiable hunger to get up, Jaber replied that he does it because its fun, and if its ever not, then that's when he'll quit.  Hope that time never comes. Jaber has more than earned the award for Graffiti Artist of the Year.  Stay up!

Special shout outs to other graffiti artists and writers killing it this year including Agod, Fishe KOG, Hamok, Sand One, Glaboe, CBS Crew, MSK Crew, Grime Crew, Movie, Avery, KYC, SYB Crew, Love Krew, RTH Crew, Jew, LOK Crew, J4F Crew, Merch, Lukas, and Hanos.

2012 Best Sticker Artist of the Year - Kings of Los Angeles~

For 2012's Best Sticker Artist of the Year, M&F is taking it old school back to the roots of graffiti.  Back in the pre-internet days, the only way to get your name known all over the city was to get up all over the city.  Those who got up city wide would be crowned Kings of Los Angeles.  Well, there are still some Kings of Los Angeles, and the Best Sticker Artist of the Year goes to 3 such Kings, Blind One & Back One UAO RK and Arson.  

Even though this award is for Sticker Artist of the Year, these are all graffiti writers who use stickers to slap tag the city.  All 3 of these artists also tag ferociously and Arson paints graffiti a lot as well, but stickers are their main medium used in smashing every corner in LA.  These artists' passion, determination, and reach can not be questioned.  Every time M&F ventured to a new area, we were continually amazed at how we would always find evidence that these artists had already rolled through.  These guys get up and hold down spots.  From Hollywood to Downtown.  From Long Beach to Chatsworth.  From Venice to Pasadena.  Walk down your block, its there.  These guys get up all over.  Literally.  Blind One, Back One, and Arson are M&F's Sticker Artists of the Year 2012 and modern Kings of Los Angeles.  Stay up!~

Special shout out to many more Sticker Artists who did some amazing things on the streets of Los Angeles this year.  Honorable mention to HNTR, Asmar, Plavex, Rotting Fresh Crew, 455er, PCH Crew, Join the Surveillance, Branded RTH, Bankrupt Slut, Love Krew, BNW, 125er, REM Crew, 2much, Batle, Gone, Half, and Plzr.

M&F Presents - Best of LA Street Art 2012

2012 has been a wild ride on the streets of Los Angeles. Melrose and Fairfax is proud to present 20 of our favorite shots for the Best of Los Angeles Street Art 2012. Enjoy the year in review!

(All photos by Melrose and Fairfax, unless otherwise noted.)

^It has been said that being a street artist is like a kid playing on the streets. This giant mural from Bumblebee captures the spirit of kids playing.

^Street artist Chod paints over a dollar bill. Notice the little features, such as how the middle monkey's nostrils double as George Washington's masked eyes. This modified dollar bill was found glued to a red street curb in Hollywood.

^French street artist JR visited Los Angeles and left some beautifully decorated buildings behind. Like this one on Beverly Blvd.

^Love this piece featuring the stencil of a boy playing with a toy airplane. Unknown artist.

^There was lot of political street art in 2012, like this piece based on the Presidential Election from Bumboy WC.

^Street artist BANKRUPT SLUT makes a slutty case for gender equality with a Lady Gaga themed street piece entitled 'Slut-Its a good thing!'

^Some girls interact with a street piece from Bumboy WC, featuring a life size paster of Chris Brown pulling a punch.

^Action shots of street artist Morley pasting up a life-size street portrait of himself bearing the message, "I love you because we hate the same stuff."

^Beautiful angel with wings painted on a blood red wall in downtown Los Angeles by street artist Drew.

^Graffiti writers are still risking life and limb to find the hottest spots to get up in Los Angeles. This pic captures the death defying heights and 100 foot drop below where these artists had to cling while painting these pieces. Impressive work from FSK and Tuelr.

^This deliciously colorful mural from Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra has graced La Brea for the better part of 2012.

^Chik-fil-a became a target for progressive activists this year after their so-called family values were revealed to be less about the family and more about supporting anti-gay causes. Subsequently, 2012 saw multiple pieces of street art aimed at the fast food giant for its perceived bigotry. One of the best pieces landed right here in West Hollywood, and the local Chik-fil-a got 'Gay Bombed' with a 3d rocket installation by the street artist Plastic Jesus. (Thanks to Nick Stern for the pic)

^Plastic Jesus strikes again with a piece that surfaced on Melrose during the Holiday shopping season. It is appropriately entitled American Excess. (thanks to Nick Stern for the photo)

^Action shots of street artist Teacher in the midst of a participatory live painting clinic at Fairfax High School. When he was finished, Teacher donated this painting to the school. (Thanks to John Wellington Ennis for the photo)

^Often times, street art will play the role of jester in society, like this piece from street artist Bumboy WC, which utilizes imagery from the Kent State Riots to capture the mayhem surrounding the iPhone 5 being sold out. (Thanks to John Wellington Ennis for the pic)

^4th of July themed portrait from L.A. street artist There She Is.

^Free Humanity paints a whole lotta love into this mural on Sunset entitled 'The Best Thing to Hold Onto in Life is Each Other.'

Dig this shot because it captures the full spectrum of street art in Los Angeles with wheat paste (from BANKRUPT SLUT), graffiti (from Clasi and Chili), stickers (from Damage and Long Live) and a mural (painted by Random Act).

^Action shots of Alec Monopoly getting up and painting a rooftop in Hollywood.

^Sometimes, street art is like fine art on the streets, like with this gorgeous piece from Maggot.


M&F's Best Of LA Street Art 2012 originally published on the Huffington Post.

The Best Graffiti Mural EVER

Speaking of 'Best Of', this is M&F's favorite graffiti mural of all time.  Long time followers of the blog probably remember, but this wall has a storied history.

The mural first popped up on Fairfax a couple of years ago.  The wall showcased traditional graffiti burner pieces from some of the top graffiti artists and biggest names in the entire world all set against the impeccable background of Retna's hieroglyphic lettering.  Everyone should recognize the artist's names who painted on this wall including LA's own MSK members Retna, Revok, Rime, Norm and Saber, as well as a piece from the amazingly talented Brazilian twin duo, Os Gemeos.  Like icing on the cake, the yellow trim of the building and window frames makes the wall pop like no other.

This wall is an incredible piece of art on its own, but it took on a life of its own in the spring of 2011 when a private contractor hired by the city of LA to buff graffiti broke into this fenced yard by removing the gate from its hinges.  They then began painting over this mural, and they buffed over the entire left hand side by the time the building owner showed up and called the cops on the tresspassing buffman.  The owner wanted the graffiti on the wall, and was pissed off by the unsanctioned buffing.  M&F captured the ordeal with a post entitled 'Oh Shit! Now You Fucked Up!'.

Threats of lawsuits inspired the city to try and right the wrong, and the buff team was sent back to the same spot a day later to paint back over their buff with paint removing paint.  M&F got exclusive action shots of the buffman buffing himself, and those following the drama were skeptical that this plan would work.

However, the removal of the buff paint did work, for the most part, and the original graffiti mural has returned.  Its a bit faded, but still riding.

So, not only is this one of the coolest looking murals ever, but it also has one of the coolest stories of any graffiti mural anywhere.  Here is a closer look at the mural, beginning with full shots and close-ups of Rime's character pieces.

Dig it. Stay up~

2012 - The BEST OF Street Art in Los Angeles - Coming Soon!

2012 has been a wild ride for street art in Los Angeles.   Get set for a 3 part series chronicling the Top Stories of the Year, a pictorial Year in Review, and M&F's awarding for 2012's Best of Street Art in LA.

Coming Soon!

MF'n Street Artist of 2011

MelroseandFairfax's Top Street Artist for 2011~

MF'n Sticker Artist of 2011

MelroseandFairfax's Top Sticker Artist for 2011~

Top 10 Street Art Stories of 2011

Best of Brainwash's 'Art Show 2011' on Huff Po

M&F wrote a feature for the Huffington Post, and it is essentially the 'Best of' the first day at Mr. Brainwash's 'Art Show 2011'.

You can check it out HERE.

Today is the last day so if you want to participate make sure you make it over to the gallery space on Romaine and La Brea before 10PM tonight!

The Best of Banksy in LA

Dead Arm Ball

Fresh off being crowned crew of the year,The Status Faction keeps mobbin heat.

Here are some more pieces of hand made street art. These are life size wheat pastes featuring ball players playing ball with their arms and legs.

Riding on this art wall with a peeled Charlie Chaplin from SmogCity to the left, semi-buffed Koffinz at the same spot.


Stay fresh~

BEST OF LA STREET ART 2010 - RESULTS!!

MELROSEandFAIRFAX is proud to announce the winners of The BEST OF LA Street Art 2010.

The Winners are:

STREET ART
KH no. 7


STICKERS
Insurgency Inc.


GRAFFITI
Bran One TRB


CREW
The Status Faction - TSF

Huge Congratulations to all the Winners!

We are working on putting together a prize package for the winner of each category~

Thanks to all the fans and supporters who show their love by following the blog and voting.



BEST OF LA 2010 FINAL RESULTS

STREET ART
1.) KH no. 7
2.) Septerhed
3.) Dog Byte
4.) Zombie
5.) Alec
6.) Leba
7.) Join the Surveillance
8.) Cryptik
9.) Free Humanity
10) Destroy All Design

STICKERS
1.) Insurgency Inc.
2.) Gregory Siff
3.) Bankrupt Slut
4.) Smog City
5.) Howe
6.) MQ
7.) Herbert the Hippo
8.) DWA
9.) 2much
10.) Savage

GRAFFITI
1.) Bran One TRB
2.) Smear RTH
3.) Irok Rotting Fresh
4.) Glaboe - Grime Crew
5.) Eyeworm
6.) Cest
7.) Branded RTH
8.) Decep One
9.) Buer
10.) Erie


CREW
1.) The Status Faction - TSF
2.) Rotting Fresh
3.) CBS
4.) RTH
5.) Cat Cult
6.) Love Crew
7.) JDI
8.) Red Eye Mob - REM
9.) FYF
10). SGK

The closest contest was for Graffiti, where the top 3 were separated by only a couple of votes. KH no. 7 received powerful email support leading to a decisive win.

We also received write in email votes for Nomade, Jose, Plavex, Grime Crew, Hael, Atlas, Mar, Dethkills. And our favorite write-in submission, which came from AJL for Phone-Jack (bwahahaha-dude's put in work!)

***Also: we owe a huge apology to Inept. He earned a place on the Street Artist of the Year selection, but we made small typo which led to a HUGE omission. Major apologies to Inept and his fans for mistakenly leaving his name off the voting list***

This was an awesome year for street art in Los Angeles. Every artist mentioned deserves commendation. There are many incredible artists who, for whatever reason, just didn't make the list. Big thanks to everyone who's put up art in 2010, and we look forward to an amazing '11.

Happy New Year~

Stay Up~

Things Getting Heated for 'BEST OF' Contest?

As an alert viewer already pointed out, the 'Be Unique' art posted in the post before went right over a dope hand stenciled piece from Dog Byte.

This pick shows the back of the box, where pieces by Dog Byte and KH no. 7 have apparently been ripped to the ground. It does seem that these pieces were selectively ruined, as the pick shows pieces from Zoltron still running, along with a new one from MCHN-The Machine.

We are not sure what to think of this? or whether or not it has something to do with MELROSEandFAIRFAX's 'Best of' 2010 contest?

Anyone who follows the blog should know that we hate to see good art ruined and unnecessary beef on the streets. Remember kids, friends don't let friends fuck up cool street art~

BEST OF LA - 2010

Welcome to the 'BEST OF LOS ANGELES STREET ART 2010' -STREET ARTIST-STICKERS-GRAFFITI-CREW presented by MelroseandFairfax.

There are two ways to vote for your favorite street artist(s) this year!

1). First, email your vote to melroseandfairfax@gmail.com. Vote for any or all the categories you choose-and feel free to write in any candidate(s). One-Vote-Per-Person~

2.) Second- Place your Vote at the Polls on the right sidebar. Vote as many times as you want - but to do so YOU MUST CLEAR COOKIES AND REFRESH YOUR BROWSER HISTORY EACH TIME.

Results will be determined based 50% on Email and 50% on Polls, so make sure to vote both ways!!

The Nominees are:

Street Art
1.)Free Humanity
2)Dog Byte
3)Alec
4)Septerhed
5)KH no. 7
6)Leba
7)Destroy All Design
8)Join the Surveillance
9)Cryptik
10)Zombie

Stickers
1)Bankrupt Slut
2)MQ
3)Smog City
4) Savage
5)Wheat Peace
6)Howe
7)2much
8) Gregory
9)Herbert the Hippo
10)DWA
11)Insurgency Inc.

Graffiti
1) Bran One TRB
2) Cest
3) Irok
4) Eyeworm
5) Smear
6) Buer
7) Glaboe
8) Decep One
9) Branded
10) Erie

Crew
1)TSF
2) Rotting Fresh
3) RTH
4) JTS
5)Love Crew
6)JDI
7) Cat Cult
8) CBS
9) SGK
10) REM
11)FYF


***To read more about the contest CLICK HERE***

BEST OF LA - 2010

MELROSEandFAIRFAX is proud to present its -BEST OF 2010-

The 'BEST OF' is broken down into four categories:
-Street Artist of the Year
-Sticker Artist of the Year
-Graffiti Artist of the Year
-Top Crew of 2010

2010 was an amazing year for street art in Los Angeles.

MELROSEandFAIRFAX started out as a blog that mainly focused on the area its named after, but as we've grown, so has the coverage, and we now have covered street art in LA from Downtown to Newport Beach to the far ends of the Valley.

Clearly, we could not cover every piece of area in this enormous city. There are many great artists out there making a name in Los Angeles who aren't on this list and we have mad respect for anyone and everyone getting up. We would love to include everyone who has done street art this year on the list, however, we selected these nominations based on the amount of coverage these artists have got on this blog this year.

We would also like to take a minute and toot our own horn. This year has seen our humble beginnings and HUGE success. Based on the amount of web traffic and hits each day, MELROSEandFAIRFAX is now the #1 SITE FOR STREET ART STICKERS IN THE WORLD and the #5 STREET ART WEBSITE WORLDWIDE.

To give that some sort of larger reference of this sites web traffic, we get more hits than 99.5% of ALL websites IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!

This rise of this blog this year has been astounding, and we really can only thank all the amazing, incredible artists who share their work on the streets of Los Angeles. THANK YOU!!! ~

And what we can give back is the promise is massive coverage and to keep blasting this art from the streets of Los Angeles to the rest of the world~


****For those who are curious about what happened to the earlier contest and why we revamped, read on: We had to take the contest down because the voting had become stacked. Some enthusiastic supporters had discovered that the 1-vote-per-person could be gotten around by clearing a computer's cookies and history. So even though most people honored the system, a handful of IP addressees voted dozens of times.

We don't fault the enthusiasm of the voters, but the results weren't accurate. After deliberating on how to handle the situation, we decided to take the contest down and relaunch the contest in a way that would allow people to voice their support as much as they like, and still get accurate feedback on what viewers support on this blog and want to see.

So the new contest is 2-pronged. 50% of the results will come from public voting-and 50% will come from email votes.

For the public voting, we encourage people to vote as many times as they can. Public support counts for a lot, and we want to hear what people are enthusiastic about, so vote, vote, vote!!! --(the only issue is that we due to the constraints of the system this blog works on, you will still have to CLEAR COOKIES AND REFRESH YOUR BROWSER EACH TIME to vote multiple times)

And for the email voting we encourage people to just vote!! We know it takes more effort to send an email, but if you want to show support for your favorite artists, it is very simple and only takes a minute.

Winners will receive a can of Montana Hardcore Spraypaint, Sticker Pack, and Bragging Rights~

Thanks to all the readers for voting! And good luck to all the artists!