We're going back to the Obey theme today (More ObeyLA: here, here, here, here; ObeySF: here) to mourn the passing of an old Obey standby. We work downtown and heading West on Wilshire at Virgil we always liked passing this Misfits slash Ramones slash Andre the Giant hybrid piece:
Somebody obviously did not like it as much as we did; we did a double-take when we were in the area yesterday and saw this, which we'll call a Nobey:
Curiously, in its stead, rising up like a mutant Phoenix, there is now this:
What is this? A gang sign? A bat with the shakes? Whatever it is, we couldn't help but wonder if, once a piece by someobody with the credibility of Shepard Fairey is removed from an area, less talented people come in and put up their street jibberish.
The idea might seem like a stretch until you read this LA Times article, also from yesterday, coincidentally -- or not, perhaps. Seems the proprietors of a family-owned store became so fed up with being hit with lazy graffiti that they payed a street-artist to put up a mural (the difference between "street art" and "murals" and "graffiti" and "tagging" and, um, "advertising" is a topic we will eventually photoblog). The lazy graffiti stopped and the consensus was that the taggers had respect for the muralist and left the space alone. Until the city stepped in, made the family paint over the mural at the behest of a concerned citizen, only to watch the lazy graffiti come back worse than ever.
So, in conclusion:
Street art: smart design :: graffiti: intelligent design.
