From the Crib to the Grave - Banksy iz Ghetto 4 Life!

^Haha, this baby is off to a good start.  Guess this is what it takes for a child in a crib to start tagging by 10.  Call it early education~

Folks have already found Banksy's Ghetto 4 Life in the Bronx.  By the time it was located by the Banksy fans, this one had already been noticed by the local graffiti writers.  This hit from Skeew is one of the first real graffiti tags to go over a Banksy piece.  Notice how it does not cap it, just gets up next to it?  At the heart, that is what graffiti is about.  Not mindless vandalism and hate. Graffiti is about getting up. . . . . and Staying Up!~

This piece is probably too big to be easily covered, so it will be interesting to see how the life span of this wall piece plays out.

You know what would be really funny?  If the thug crew who started charging people money to take pictures of Banksy's Beaver in East New York took over this spot.

Stay up, and stay ghetto for life!

Create LA - Vote to Support Free Art Program for Kids

Create LA is entering a contest to earn a grant for $100,000 which will be used to teach kids a hands on approach to art.

The offical press release says that: Create LA's goals are to engage youth in quality arts education; promote the spread of specialized skill-sets from this generation of artisans to the next; and provide an engaging community space for creativity to thrive. Create LA is a nonprofit organization providing arts education programs to Los Angeles youth both in community locations and out of a facility in Glassell Park that it shares with Keystone Fine Art Studios, a group of over forty artists creating sculpture, paintings, public art, and media installations.

Check out this video and vote to support the cause, and support the arts in Los Angeles.

Teacher - Art is a Lifestyle

Teacher doesn't just do art.  Teacher lives his art.

Literally.  Teacher's life is his art, and the things he paints are from his immediate world.

Like this new series.  Here are a couple of new paintings from that feature his own children.  This piece blends street art and fine art seamlessly   Teach has hit the streets with the black and white pictures in the background, and in full color up front are actual portraits of his two children.

These paintings are a gift to Teacher's amazing wife for her birthday.

Dig it.  For Teacher, art is a lifestyle~

Chop Chop

A paster from You Killed Me First riding above a multi-layer stencil of a child wearing a headband and holding a tomahawk. From 'R'.

Mother with Child

A paster of a mother cradling a child on her shoulder.

Teacher - Teachin' & Tributin'

One of our favorite things about Teacher is the way that his art packs a message to make the world better.  Teacher lives up to his 'artist mantra' with his personal life, and is one of the nicest, kindest, most helpful people around.  And when you add that message to the fact that Teacher's art is incredibly skilled, it is clear why Teacher has set himself up as one of the top street artists in Los Angeles.

Well, Teacher just hit the Barracuda parking lot with a fresh new piece that seems to hit on all of Teacher's admirable attributes.  The two new stencils are a combo of sorts. The top part is a tribute to Revok, who Teacher says is his favorite graffiti artist. Teacher says that he incorporated Revok's name into the wild style letters at the top so that it says 'Teach' and 'Revok', and 'Love' down each side.  And the bottom section is dedicated to Malala (the 14-year old girl who got shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for Women's Rights).  The Malala stencil says 'Teach Us Too' because that's what the girl wanted.  And at the bottom Teacher placed one of his signature Education Coin pastes, to signify the hope for some change.

Impressive.  And like all his earlier pieces Teacher did not use a computer or photoshop to create these stencils.  Rather, Teacher is the only artist around who can compose something like this freehand out of his artistic imagination.  Incredible.

To top it all off, Teacher says that the inspiration for this new piece was to honor his Dad, whose birthday it is today.  If he knows Teacher like we know Teacher, he must be proud~

Dig it.  Stay up, Teach!

Street Art is Not Suitable for Children

'Some material may not be suitable for children. Mild action, some rude humor and brief language.'

-Street art

Not sure who this is by but think it might be from TSF. With a hand drawn sticker from Xan up top.

Dog Byte - Welcome To The Jungle

Dog Byte just put out an amazing new piece of street art featuring a full color, lifesize stencil of a child screaming while wearing a tiger outfit, and having its foot caught in a claw trap.

Perfect placement just down from the full size street art tiger.

Really amazing stuff. This is one of our biggest features and well work clicking through, with 9 pics.

Be sure to click the jump below for more exclusive MELROSEandFAIRFAX covereage of Los Angeles street art