The Carlsbad Village Art Wall

It could be said for a lot of street artists, that doing street art is a love affair with the city.  This is true for Snyder in his hometown of Carlsbad, but for Snyder, he extends that even farther.  For Snyder, doing street art is a love affair with the community.

Snyder doesn't just leave his art in the community for people to enjoy, but time and time again Snyder uses his art to engage people in the community, and even get people doing art.

This is one of Snyder's passion projects tentatively entitled 'The Carlsbad Village Art Wall'.  Snyder intends for it to be a community wall where everyone can make art.  As an added bonus, and to make it appealing perhaps even to LA artists, the location of the Carlsbad Village Art Wall is situated so that it gets seen by freeway traffic on the 5, as well as the train traffic from the nearby tracks.  Awesome visibility.

To make the wall happen, Snyder not only had to get permission, but Snyder also built a platform for artists to stand on so that the art will get seen from the freeway.  And, to make sure that there are no problems within the community, Snyder has visited all the nearby businesses and let them know that if any of the art spills over onto their property, that he will personally take care of it.

Impressive.  Snyder is trying to make the community better and in every way he is putting his reputation where his art is.

Chod - Thanks to Everyone

Did you get a free T-shirt?

Chod hosted a free t-shirt giveaway at the corner of Melrose and Fairfax on December 2nd.  Hopefully a lot of people showed up and scored some groovy gear.  The M&F team planned on attending, but our collective short term memory is shot, and we forgot!

Chod has replaced a former paste on the electrical box located at the intersection of Melrose and Fairfax thanking everyone who came down.  Dig the way that Chod is engaging the community, and still doing it in a way that is true to the streets.

Perhaps, like M&F has mentioned before, the next generation after the Fame Bangers will be engaged with Community based street art.

Dig it.  Stay up!

MELROSEandFAIRFAX is OG~

MELROSEandFAIRFAX is OG, and here is a sticker to prove it.  One of the original MELROSEandFAIRFAX stickers was spotted still riding on Hollywood Blvd.  This sticker dates back nearly 3 years ago.

In that time, M&F has grown to be one of the top street art blogs in the world, built a community in Los Angeles, shared LA's art with the rest of the world.

M&F is OG and the most 'street' out of any street art blogs in the the world.  Stay up!~

The Generation After 'Exit Through the Photoshop'

Snyder Builds Community through Street Art

BEST of BANKSY on MELROSEandFAIRFAX

MELROSEandFAIRFAX has been at the forefront of all the Banksy action in LA. In fact, we think we were the first internet source to post all four pieces and have had the exclusive jump on the action that has happened since.

It all started with a tip we received on the blog we hunted down Banksy's Crayon Soldier. We didn't know anything about Lauren Conrad's tweet at the time, like most internet sources, and even though she technically had the inside scoop, we were the first to launch the initial pics of Banksy's Crayon Soldier.

Before the thrill of the first Banksy had even worn off, we were tipped off on another Banksy- the Charlie Brown on Sunset, and we rushed over to take the first pics, and put QtipTheCat in the pics for good measure.

On the way home from Charlie, we snapped pics of what we thought at the time was just another impressive graffiti billboard takeover and posted them that same night. We were the first ones in the world to post these images, but had no idea that 'Livin the Dream' was Banksy at the time. The next day Banksy posted the images on his website and word got out that the billboard was a Banksy.

We had hardly got done posting that the billboard was indeed a Banksy when a viewer submitted pics of the pissing Bulldog. We blasted the pics out there not sure at the time whether it was a Banksy or not. It was, and we locked down the position of being the first internet source to cover each of Banksy's four new pieces in Los Angeles.

It has been a wild ride that did not stop with the discovery but led on to Charlie being boarded up, and then uncovered and drilled, and finally removed and put on ebay.

As if that weren't drama enough, Livin the Dream got taken down and respectable folks almost came to fists fighting over it.

And aside from all the pieces themselves, there have been all kinds of great community stories including rumors about other pieces by Banksy, Banksy getting spot-jacked, stories of dedication from the legions of Banksy fans, street art dedicated to Banksy's street art, not to mention good dialogue on the topic of street art.

But perhaps the coolest thing has been the way the community has flocked to MELROSEandFAIRFAX for the latest breaking news on Banksy, and not only find out about what's happening, but contribute to the making the story itself and submitting, what we believe to be exclusive shots of Banksy's Crayon Soldier before it was buffed.

It has been a wild ride, and we have only managed 10 hours of sleep the last 3 nights combined. It has been well worth it, and we have loved every moment of this chase. Huge thanks to all the viewers, followers, and contributors who have made all this magic happen!

And our personal guess is that there might be a new crop of Banksy street art in Los Angeles after the Oscars are awarded. Win or lose, we expect to see something. (But c'mon, no doubt Banksy is going to win! When is the last time people were talking about the award so much?)

Keep checking back to MELROSEandFAIRFAX for the latest, greatest breaking news on Banksy in LA.

Banksy Was a Big Deal

The hottest spot in LA the past few days has been in front of a Banksy piece.

We spent 15 minutes or so by the Charlie Brown piece yesterday before it got taken down, and during that brief time, a dozen or so people came by. Click the jump for more