This parking lot was shot for Vegas I, and there’s been some activity here since then.
The original piece has been defaced for some reason, someone apparently trying to make a point by painting the eyes white. In this world, it’s a deep sign of disrespect.
And that brings us to what’s at the core of the graf scene: respect. It’s about artists respecting each other, and without that, it’s a bit of a free-for-all. Artists aren’t like gang members, where if someone disrespects somebody else they’ll drop him in a dark alley with a can of Montana to the back of the head. They are, however, are still human, and when a piece they spent a lot of time on gets defaced, it does tend to start rivalries. For the most part, this simply means that one artist or crew tries to out paint everyone else by doing bigger, better, and more creative masterworks.
Think West Side Story, but with wall painting instead of dancing.
Las Vegas, NV, USA. 11/01/2012.