New Year's Day, January 1, 2015 - iT'S STReeT arT THurSDay

Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

I hope you all have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and New Year's holiday period. I have. I managed to dodge major illness during this time, which is normally the case.

The morning picture regiment will resume on Monday, but Street Art Thursday deserves a posting today. (Didn't do it last week because it was Xmas Day and I was cooking dinner for 16!)

Today's selection comes from a building that houses the 7 Star Auto Body Shop as well as an adjoining auto mechanical repair shop. Behind the two automotive businesses are a tiny convenience mart and a beauty shop.

Gaso Anice, artist "LSC", mural, paint on stucco, 2014

It was record-breaking cold last night in Los Angeles (36 F), so finding this very summery mural in my walks around East Holly this morning warmed the cockles of me heart.

This artist is employing the standard technique of elaborating and distorting roman letters in a highly decorative and colorful way. It took me a while to figure out that he was riffing on the name that you see in the yellow banner above  being toted by the little airplane on the right, "Gaso Anice." Gaso is literally melting from the ambient heat of the Anice that looks like it is on fire.





LSC appears to be the mark of the primary artist, but there are other collaborative tags, I assume: MTA, WCA, and Cindy. Much of this kind of mural has "RIP" memorial notations, here to Heuro Tar and Kincoe.

I love the colorful NYC-style cityscape that peeks through the letters of Gaso. 7 Star is obviously the patron and commissioner for this work, appearing twice.




It's impossible to say without talking to the owners or the artists, but one wonders if the two characters "Primal" (the skateboarding caveman) and "Joe Cool" correspond to the two RIP notices. Both of them are definitely "boys of summer," very lightly dressed and raring for fun ahead.


Off to the side on the left is this secondary mural. This serves the commercial purpose of advertising the patron, but you can see this is definitely executed by a less skilled hand, obviously the work of an apprentice.

The treatment of the thicks and thins of the typography is inconsistent and not thought out, and the contrast is choppy with parts popping out for no apparent reason. This is an excellent example of the difference between master and apprentice treatments.

So this your New Year's present from the curator of the Hell's Edge Online Museum of Street Art in East Hollywood.  Thanks for looking, and have a wonderful 2015.

Love,
Pops


PS: You will never see this from the street. It's only visible in the parking lot. If you want to see it in person, it's at Alexandria and Melrose.