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.

Being Banksy: Part 2

I previously posted about Nick Stern, a photographer who is creating real life versions of infamous street artist Banksy’s 2D graffiti. He’s at it again with more photos for the series he’s entitled “You are not Banksy”.

Photos via.

Straightforward Street Art

Sean Hart is the street artist behind these works that feature large fonts and intense, direct messages. Hart describes himself as “the moon’s favourite lover, the heir of the sun…familiar to the stranger..I am an exile with a talkative glance…I exist…I am a poem…I am a poet and my poetry is a weapon loaded with the future.”

Photos via Hart’s website.

Scratching the Surface

Alexander Farto, better known by his street name of Vhils, is the artist behind these portraits found on walls and buildings in multiple cities. Vhils actually constructs through destruction by chipping away at the surfaces to create portraits that despite their hard material seem emotional and thoughtful. On why he chooses walls as his canvas and chiseling as his medium, Vhils says that he never has and “never want to have absolute control over what I’m doing – I like the unexpected and the uncertain. I am interested in working with what one can’t control; it is this ephemeral character which I’m interested in exploring: the inconstancy and impermanence of matter. My pieces are in permanent transformation – an intentional transformation. The entire scope of human endeavor has been aimed at fixating, at creating institutional structures which can oppose change, maintain. and nature is the exact opposite of this, a permanent state of transformation, mutation, change. I’m interested not only in highlighting this ephemeral condition, but also in instigating it, in encouraging it.” And if you weren’t enthralled by his words already, the meaning behind the art digs even deeper: “The intention is to engrave the idea of life on a wall, creating an iconographic piece of symbolism that will endure — bringing to life the idea of life on a lifeless surface. in the un-organic and grey landscapes of the urban world it is easy to loose track of what our nature really is and where we came from…”

Photos via Farto’s website and here.

Glorious Geodes

For the past 5 months, graphic designer Paige Smith has been creating 3D paper sculptures and placing them in holes or run-down areas around Los Angeles. Smith enjoys “the fact that many people will not notice these, but some astute people will” and loves creating “art in custom spaces, less unexpected but equally beautiful.” You can happen upon her geodes “during your adventures or casual interaction with the environment” or seek them out through the map she provides. These tiny sculptures are truly “unexpected treasures”; a bright and fun return to nature in the midst of an urban world. Pictures as well as a video made for her installation at The Standard in Hollywood are below.

Pictures via Smith’s website. You can also follow her on Twitter here.

Tom Fruin’s Kaleidoscopic Watertower in Brooklyn

Tom Fruin has unveiled his newest kaleidoscopic structural installation “Watertower”, a sparkling new addition to the Brooklyn skyline.
The Brooklyn artist has built a 25 by 10 foot tall water tank with nearly 1,000 colorful salvaged plexiglass. The transparent water tower sculpture adorns the new Brooklyn Bridge Park. During the day, the hundreds of rainbow panes of the water tower mosaic catch natural sunlight, glowing from different angles depending on the time. By night, the glittering sculpture is illuminated by an ardunio-controlled light show.

“Watertower” is visible to any person with a clear view of the Dumbo, Brooklyn, the illuminated, colored glass work will be on show from June 7th, 2012, remaining on exhibition until the following June.

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.

Bouncing Bubbles

Renée Reijnders and Merijn Hos created this fun installation, which they call “Bubblegum”, on the waters of Almere, a town in the Netherlands. The bubbles float and dance on the water, and LED lights are inserted inside them at night to create an equally whimsical vision. Discussing her work, Reijnders says that her art “is not only for myself. I want to show something beautiful, a vision or interaction. My sculptures and other projects are mostly for public spaces. Art can be used and is not only meant for watching.”

Photos via Reijnders’ website, Hos’ website, 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.

Sidewalk Sand Paintings

Joe Mangrum creates gorgeous sidewalk paintings on the streets of Brooklyn with nothing but his hands and bags of colored sand. Mangrum’s philosophy is that “we are all unknowingly and psychologically programed by the urban grid system…ultimately out of sync with the natural world…disconnected physically and metaphorically from the whole.” His sand paintings are a rejection of this and a representation of interconnectivity, inspired by components of technology, art, and culture, and a combination of ancient aesthetics and modern, pop-art colors and style. Check out photos of his paintings below as well as this video of Mangrum in action.

Mangrum updates his website regularly on his current location as well as ongoing projects and exhibitions. He also has a book with 70 photographs of his paintings available for sale here. Photos via Mangrum’s website and Oddity Central.