- 7075 Brace St. [HAR]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Tag: Graffiti
What’s it take to get a little paint or something thrown up onto a languishing and partially boarded-up Washington Ave building? If you’re landscape architecture firm Asakura Robinson and you’ve just moved in upstairs in front of the Drake in the building at the corner of Washington and Silver, you just put out a little invitation to Houston Street Art: Free . . . canvas! Bring on the street painters and poster kids! Nine of them showed up yesterday, including your pals weah, Article, Info, Wereone, Marbles, Sode, D-Falt, and COW. Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia caught up with the action as the paint and wheatpaste went down:
HOUSTON’S COMING CUDDLY ANIMAL INVASION 
Look out for a migration of flamingoes, and a few more bunnies for Easter, announces the Houston Press‘s John Nova Lomax, after an interview with stencil artist Coolidge. “A lot of people are like, ‘Aw, you need to do a cat!’ or ‘You should do a rhino!’ or something, and I’m like, ‘Well, if I was gonna do that, I’m not now.’ . . . It’s almost like I should stop doing them on city property. I should probably stick to private property. Some people have contacted me to thank me after I’ve done their buildings up. The city won’t mess with that stuff, but if it’s on their property they’ve been taking them down pretty quick.” [Art Attack] Photo of Taylor St. bridge at I-10: Alex Luster
Denver Hopkins tells abc13 he’s the brilliant mastermind who spent 30 seconds at an open, unlocked keyboard attached to a downtown electronic construction sign over the weekend, changing the message from “Poop” to “;> LOL.” What harsh punishment will the Texas Dept. of Transportation seek to inflict on this sign hacker? He turned himself in this afternoon to the TxDOT offices at I-10 and Old Katy Rd. to find out. TxDOT spokeswoman Raquelle Lewis told Chronicle reporters yesterday that messing with the sign carries a fine of “up to $500.”
- Accused construction sign hacker turns himself in [abc13, via Miya Shay]
- Downtown traffic sign becomes butt of joke [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Comment of the Day: Catch Me If You Can, Sez ‘Poop’ Hack Perp, What Dirty Little Secret Was This Downtown Sign Hiding?
Video: abc13
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, SEZ ‘POOP’ HACK PERP 
“I BROKE NOTHING!!!! THERE WAS NO LOCK!!!! THEY’RE TRYIN TO COVER THEIR A$$3$!!!! THAT’S CRAP!!!! But seriously, let them try to find me. I guarantee they won’t. I’ll give you a hint. I bounce around the world 9 times before I actually connect to the internet. If they wanna try to track my IP, they’ll be in for a long and hard journey. Also, as for cameras, I’d love to see the video! Bring it on! When you do things that can get you in trouble, you can’t be afraid of the consequences.” [theguythatdidit, commenting on What Dirty Little Secret Was This Downtown Sign Hiding?]
Note: Updates below.
Successive photos of the results of a hack made to the lighted construction sign parked across from the Hogg Palace on Louisiana St. just north of Prairie over the weekend. The pic above shows the message displayed on Sunday night. What’s so funny, really? Maybe something to do with the message on display the night before:
Found relaxing in the Waugh Dr. median over the weekend, just north of Peden.
- Street Art of the Week: Tittering Also Banned [The Loop Scoop]
Photo: Paul Viscontini
Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia, who’s been steadily documenting the transformation of the vacant former Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority building on Fannin between Tuam and Drew into a canvas for street artist Daniel Anguilu and a few friends, was able to tour the building’s roof earlier this week. Commissioned by commercial real-estate broker Adam Brackman — whose family owns the building — Anguilu has already wrapped critter-filled paintings around much of the building’s ground floor for his “Public Decor Project.” But up in the Midtown sky, the work he and a few collaborators are creating on a few stray surfaces comes across as something else entirely:
That phoenix carefully painted only a week and a half ago onto the side of the Agora Cafe at 1712 Westheimer near Dunlavy is now gone, reports the camera of Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia. Agora and the Antique Warehaus that used to be next door donned extremely realistic fire costumes for this past Halloween. In place of the firebird, which onlookers took as a sign the cafe might soon reopen: A new sign for the cafe itself, probably a clearer indication. It looks like more paint has found its way to the front of the Montrose hotspot too:
Street artist Daniel Anguilu hopes to cover the entire surface of this 4-story Midtown building with his distinctive animal-friendly murals. Anguilu — also known by his nom-de-spray, weah — began painting the former Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority building at 2850 Fannin St. in June. But it’s not exactly a stealth project: Anguilu was invited to take on what he’s calling the Public Decor Project by commercial real-estate broker Adam Brackman, whose family owns the building. And Brackman’s been providing him with mistinted no-VOC paint from New Living, the Rice Village green-home-supplies store where Brackman’s a partner.
A few pix from around town, in our occasional photo feature: First, a reader sends in this view of the curious paint job now in progress on the original Ruggles Grill on Lower Westheimer.
Next, we discover the just-opened new home of I-10 refugee Las Alamedas, on the simulated Main Street of Katy’s LaCenterra shopping center in Cinco Ranch:
Got an answer to one of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.
- Location TBD: A reader who’s seen it used as a backdrop for engagement photos wants to know the location of this wall painted with the Texas flag. The pic above was snapped more than 2 1/2 years ago — does the Lone Star-splatted wall yet wave?
- Cottage Grove: Reader Eric Nordstrom wants to know what that new construction going up on Shepherd across from the shuttered Shuck Daddy’s is gonna be when it grows up. That’d be on the corner of Maxie St., for all you online map Googlers.
- First Ward: Yet another reader sends in these notable surveillance photos (below) from the scene of the old Harris Moving and Storage warehouse at 1824 Spring St. What’s going on there? “They dug up the fuel tank a few months ago, and lately there are fleets of HVAC and plumbing trucks in front every day. They’ve amassed a number of curb mosaics and appear to be laying them out for parking spaces. The most recent thing I observed was framing out of some of the windows — for AC units maybe? The other morning I also saw a truckload of what appeared to be room dividers being delivered. There is a rumor in the neighborhood that the warehouse will be turned into artist space, but I have no idea how credible that is.” Swamplot readers: What credible rumors about this building do you have to contribute?
Ack! This was the scene last Friday, a block from Baldwin Park in Midtown, on the 1500 block of Anita St., between Crawford and La Branch. Sent to Swamplot by the video’s creator, Alex Luster, who — you know — documents this sort of thing.
- Previously on Swamplot: These Are the Street Artists in Your Neighborhood, Don’t, Give Up: Houston Wheatpasters and the Law, Aerosol Warfare Declares E.D.O. the Street Art District
Video: Alex “PR!MO” Luster
“Why not cut out the middle man?” asks local stencil and wheatpaste artist Give Up, after noting one too many prized local works of graffiti unceremoniously painted over with dull gray paint by cleanup crews. His innovation: Spray cans set up to buff themselves.
Here’s his rig. On the right: your standard black can with a skinny cap, primed for graffiti expression. But it’s hooked up to a buff-gray can with a fat cap. Push the bar and the two spray at the same time — “so you can buff your own stuff as you go.”
Yep, that’s Give Up on graffiti. But didn’t he move on from freeform paint long ago? What about wheatpaste artists who want to get in on the zen action too? Ah . . . here’s another tool he’s got in in development:
In this edition of our occasional photo feature, a new shipment of street art opens around town. First up: this bit of spray-painted enthusiasm for BP cleanup efforts, installed in an impromptu outdoor gallery at the corner of Missouri and Commonwealth in Montrose.
What’s next to see?
