LA Weekly

The only thing remarkable about this "street art" is the scale and how conspicuous it is. If you saw it on an adolescents notebook you would think it is just bad stoner artwork. We should not tolerate the destruction of public property any longer.

Well Efrain, it's certainly not an opinion that you are alone in holding.

I try when possible to also post photos of commissioned work by these artists - walls attached to businesses that want the art displayed and whose owners pay for its creation and upkeep.

For example, here is a link to some work done by Retna and El Mac on a State of California DMV Building. blogs.laweekly.com/lurker/retna-el-mac-on-hollywood-west/ . (at least they are in the building that is painted. I don't know if they are the ones who commissioned the work. I doubt it in fact, though it was approved).

Can anyone really consider this "bad stoner art"? I don't think so. I think it's beautiful.

Other pieces, not so much. The ones you're commenting on here are not exactly the best stuff in our city, but I do want Lurker to document and acknowledge the vast scope of the current graffiti boom. And some of Auger's other stuff is quite impressive.

Certainly the variety of work and its quality is huge in LA. Some of it is downright destructive, and I try not to post pictures of writers' work who engage in that.

I'm going to post a lot of pictures of the LA River in the coming week and a lot of people who might like that Retna / El Mac building will find it ugly and wish it would just be removed.

But I will also post some pictures of some beautiful work at a gas station in Hollywood that was originally featured in LA Weekly last year as it was being done. I hope you'll come back and at least check it out and maybe you'll like it.