No Can Left Behind

Can Love is an organization that collects discarded spray paint cans and creates additional art using their skeletons. The main problem they have with street art is “not the environmental impact of graffiti art, but rather our lack of awareness and respect for the very thing that allows us to create amazing typographic masterpieces.” On their mission, Can Love states that they “like to think we’re setting the soul of each spray can free, allowing it to rest in peace (or pieces), and memorializing it as a true work of art.”

Photos via Can Love’s website.

Street-Art with a Dose of Sarcasm

Mobstr, a British street artist, is known for his witty, short and to-the-point tags that often cause the viewer to stop and think. Like other graffiti artists such as Banksy, he is very passionate about the debate over the difference between advertising and street art. “We’ll happily put a six metre wide billboard up on the side of a shop or house convincing you the latest innovative toothbrush will enrich your life yet when someone paints a picture on some brick we suddenly become offended. What is the difference between putting your image on the street via the means of a billboard or taking it into your own hands and spraying it on a wall? The billboard is legal and the spray paint image is not. Why? One is endorsed by money and the other by a creative spirit. I know which one wins out for me and ultimately which one creates the image I would rather walk around my city and look at.” On his motivation behind his art, and his particular style of graffiti, he states, “Our visual surroundings are very important to us. They dictate our mood, well being, and satisfaction with where we live. The people who decide how we visually use our space have got it wrong…I want something quirky and different. Something which makes you smile, which makes you question, which makes you think…. even if it is “why the fuck is that there?”

Pictures/quotes via Mobstr’s website, here, and here.

Being Banksy

In an interesting new project, Los Angeles-based artist photographer Nick Stern has recreated famous images of Banky’s graffiti using models and photography, turning Banky’s 2-dimensional concepts into living, breathing art. Stern’s photos are below alongside the original Banky designs.

Photos via Stern’s website and here.