Let’s Paint The Town Read

My wife and I spent Easter Sunday on the boardwalk this year peddling between Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, California, USA. I didn’t anticipate so many people having the same idea. The boardwalk was packed! Packed to the point where a couple of times we could hardly peddle. Everyone would dismount and walk their bicycles through the shoulder to shoulder maze of traffic on the boardwalk.

We decided to peddle inland a couple of blocks and grab coffee. When we left the coffee joint in Manhattan Beach, rather than venture back toward the boardwalk, we began peddling down side streets and alley’s. We were only a couple of blocks away from the coffee shop when I saw this 3D Realism painted on the second floor of an apartment complex:

That Isn’t a balcony, that’s a flat, stucco’d surface. The shadow of the trumpet is paint, those aren’t painted bricks where the mouth is and that column you think you see on the top right corner of the building isn’t there. It’s all paint, zoom in on it, there’s plenty of details you haven’t seen yet - Amazing!

We sat there for a little while in awe at the mural. That’s one of the nicer ones I’ve seen. There’s a lot of exceptional Street Art throughout the city we live in and because of that; I started taking pictures. For the past two months, since Easter Sunday, I’ve been taking pictures of the Street Art we’re surrounded by. My intention was to post the pictures here for ya’all to see but my collection is becoming overwhelming. So I’m going to post the pictures I’ve collected up to this point and continue taking photos for future posts. So c’mon - Let’s go for a Street Art tour in Los Angeles County, California, USA.

Disclaimer:
All photos were taken with a fancy shmancy iPhone 8 Plus. I say fancy shmancy because thanks to the picture taking capabilities of these hand held devices, we’re all professional photographer’s now - Ain’t it great?!

As soon as we peddled away from that apartment complex I spotted this house and couldn’t resist:

Let’s Paint The Town Read

Welcome! Welcome everybody to Street Art located in Los Angeles County, California, USA in the city of:

A pair of uncooperative palm trees refused to stop casting their shadows on the mural, can you tell it says ‘Long Beach?’
.....Let’s start over:
Re-R-R-Rewind..wine...ine....i.........i!

Welcome! Welcome everybody to Street Art located in Los Angeles County, California, USA in the city of:

Thats better.

What’s Long Beach without a Sublime mural? RIP Bradley Nowell. If you get a chance, stop by:

On 7th street. Dex actually owns the joint. Punk Rock type Rockabilly dude, his vintage vinyl selection is one of the best around. Speaking of vintage vinyl, you can tune up your music education at:

After class, stop by the Pacific Building on 7th and Long Beach Boulevard. The roof access on the south side has a lock that doesn’t latch, once you’re up there, look toward the east:

North east

South east

Continue on Long Beach Boulevard, just before you reach the traffic signal, make a right down that narrow alley. Go straight ahead and you’ll run right into him - He’s the guy slangin’ watches by the power meters:

He can get you a discount at the mid-town collective on 10th where there’s a palm tree that moonlights as Street Art:

There’s a car wash on Broadway, just down the street from Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. They use compressed air when they dry your car. There’s several pieces of Street Art within walking distance. Just on the other side of the security fence is a painted pet shop:

Not to be confused with a painted pawn shop:

Across the street and down a block to 1st Street is an abandoned laundromat with these pieces along the front of the building:

”Carls” with a Ronald McDonald image - Interesting

SP8R? See ‘Kure’ on the left, resting above the S? And above the R, see above the R in black where it’s says ‘8RT?’ Kure=Cure and 8RT=Ate Art. Get it? “Curate Art.” I’m assuming ‘SP8R’ is the artist being curated

And more along the side:

Ray Charles on a 10 foot tall roll-up garage door. I decided to get a close(er)-up

Don’t miss the data cabinet on the corner! Nearly every intersection in the city has phone/cable/fiber optics, etc. combined in “Combiner Boxes” and it’s rare to find one without paint:

A can of art supplies - Great idea

Or the one on Pomona Ave:

Corona and 2nd:

Santa Ana and 2nd:

See that guy in the picture? I waited between 4-5 minutes, I’m not exaggerating, for that guy to move but he stood right there on the sidewalk in that exact spot the whole time beating his phone to death with his thumbs. He never left. Attention: Chef-shirt wearing, phone-texting, won’t move a muscle for anything til the text gets sent guy, congratulations! You’re now part of the blockchain 📲

Across from the library at Bay Shore Bridge:

Steemit, whales, 3 whales actually! You know what?? On that note

Dear Whales:
Thank you for making the biggest splash of your day on this post!

Love Always,
@dandays

Downtown on La Verne:

Combiner Boxes - You get the picture.......

As I started back toward the car wash, I couldn’t help but notice this woman trying really hard to get someone’s attention:

Either that or maybe she didn’t want me to miss the gold reptile, amphibious looking thing on the wall of arrows:

What is that gold thing?

Down by Veterans Pier is the scuba dive shop. They have all the gear, dive trips, accessories, etc. you’ll need as well as one of my personal favorite commodities: Oxygen! There’s a dive flag and an octopus painted on the edge of the roof top, you can’t miss it:

Next door to the dive shop is a taco joint, they share the same parking lot. I’ve never eaten there but the outside dining area has some good looking paint:

Those eye’s are incredible and that paint came out of a spray can

Everyone knows where Long Beach is, right? In California? It’s on the Pacific side of the United States, opposite New York. New York City loves the West Coast, just ask Lady Liberty:

”West side”

This next one looks pretty new. I like not being able to read them when they look this good:

Not knowing what it says makes the piece that much more fun to look at. Elements of coding often seem to be required. I think the far right side says B.R.I.C.E.

About a mile inland, at the top of Signal Hill, is a garden cafe worth stopping at for a bite to eat. Before you go inside, take a look at their Outdoor Garden in the parking lot:

War No More (on a missile)

There’s a carneceria/market at the bottom of Signal Hill if you need some grocery items for the house - Just look for the robot pushing a shopping cart full of produce:

See the door frame on the left side of the picture?

This is the other side of that door:

I have no idea what that says! I like all of the stained looking soft colors inside the white. At first I thought the white was fading but it’s not

There’s a local dive bar called V Room on 4th, right across the street from 4th Street Auto.
The entire side of the building is painted in a really loud blue:

Looks like a Dungeons and Dragons theme

4th Street Auto Care, right across the street, you won’t miss that one either - Their building has Street Art all along the front and all the way down the side:

Side

Front

Side. Cool idea - The artist spray painted a mural of someone spray painting a mural

There’s a bar on Vintage Row called The Stache. On the main entrance side is a Dia De Los Muertos (day of the dead) mural. I like the way the neon signs in the bar windows look like name tags on the art work:

The final stop on this tour is the block wall on Livingston Drive that separates the Mobil gas station from the adjacent apartment complex. It’s about 100 feet long and has six individual pieces on it:

Looks like the one on the left says ‘Imagine.’ See it? Just to the right of the ‘A,’ the ‘G, I and N’ are stacked on eachother

See it? “Strange”

News, right? I’m pretty sure that says News

Upvote, see it? It says Upvote @dandays.
“Next!....”
Kidding! Your guess is as good as mine, I have no idea what that says

And last but certainly not least, “Honor,” the final piece of this tour:

All of these Street Art images were captured by an iPhone 8 Plus. I hope ya’all enjoyed the tour. Now I can start collecting images for the next episode. Happy Hump Day everybody!

Creative Commons Attribution
BY 4.0

In case you missed Memorial Day’s post:

The Appendix Of My Grandfather

This is art; observation and meticulous re-presentation. This is my favorite post from you, yet.

I lived by a railroad 'side-track' - where the rails split and there is parallel tracks for a few miles where they can stop and allow trains headed the opposite direction to pass..
I spent probably a third of my life in that house by now, I moved out last year, this month. My old man just sold that place.
Yo, you remember visiting, playing chess and badminton for hours to the sound of the creek that passed through the front yard? Good times.
Those are some great memories, you was always down for the games.

Anyway, the point was:
Everyone always complained about the trains stopping there because it blocked us in. Sometimes for hours, making us late for work or keeping us from home, whatever. I loved it. An excuse to chill and admire the art across the side of the cars. Zone out and every now and then be surprised at the skill and effort dedicated to a dirty metal surface.

I wish I had captured more with my "fancy shmancy" phone.

Dope post, thanks for sharing!