In addition to Newton's Law, here in Las Vegas we seem to have something we'll call Prudence's Law: If there are breasts showing, complaints will follow. It's almost as guaranteed as what goes up must come down. The most recent example is happening Downtown, at Casino Center and Colorado Avenue, in a small bungalow that graffiti artist Dray just moved into (full disclosure: I also recently moved into this area). Over the weekend, he and another artist in the collective 5ive Finger Miscount began painting a mural on the side of his house. It started with an outline, the body of a naked woman holding a flower in an appropriate spot. The next day, a black shadowy skyline of Las Vegas took form. Then came color, highlights in the woman's hair, blue wings, knowing eyes and a devious smirk, all spray painted, speck by speck. Eventually, it will say "First Friday: The Birth of an Art Scene." Throughout the weekend motorists and passersby raved about the painting, took pictures even.
But Tuesday morning, Dray was awakened by a code-enforcement officer and an area resident who's outraged by the nudity because school children gather in front of the mural waiting for the bus each morning.
"We're nailing that building," fumed the man, who didn't want his name used. "If they would have put a little bit of clothes on it, it would be all right, but not with the kids." The resident said he'd put calls in to the governor, the mayor, child protective services. There are many people, the red-faced man spat, who are upset by the nudity.
The code-enforcement department said they'd only received one complaint about the mural.
Dray doesn't mind the controversy. He knows it's attention-getting, and he's no stranger to it. In January 2003, Dray's graffiti-inspired art show at Winchester Community Center received heat from a Clark County graffiti-abatement specialist, who was convinced that area graffiti artists would be so inspired by the show they'd make the area into their canvas. The show came and went with no reported incidents. But the mural issue seems like it could blow up into something larger. Especially considering the atmosphere created by the recent billboard controversies.
Despite the needed attention, Dray's frustrated. He's just moved into this neighborhood to be closer to the arts scene. In doing so he's added another point of interest to the nascent arts district, and will hold the grand opening to his studio Friday. Before moving here he was in Summerlin-area suburbia, and after much deliberation, decided this was the place to be. He took a gamble moving into an area that many Las Vegans pointedly drive around, not through. In the last month, he says, he's seen positive changes taking place in the area. Movement. Progress. Energy. Dray helped paint the mural to bolster that energy. Now, he may have to paint over it.
"It's where everything's going to be happening as far as the whole arts scene, this is the mecca of it," Dray said last week, before the controversy began, sitting in his one-bedroom apartment and gallery, surrounded by his work, proudly showing off the painting he's done to cabinets, the work he's done on the floor, the lighting he's installed. "It's always good to be on the beginning of something that's going to explode, and that's kind of what I saw here, an art scene just waiting to blow up."
Outside, Jessica Christopher is painting the building and cleaning out a nearby bungalow, which is about to become another studio. Christopher is one of a team of investors who recently bought a handful of properties in this area and plan to turn them into business and living spaces. The apartments here, where Dray lives and works, need some renovation, but they're charming. At 400 square feet, the one she's working on is painted yellow with retro-looking curvature in the kitchen woodwork. And an open invitation for tenants to paint and stylize as they see fit. "I have hope for the area really developing. I mean, what's neater than the funky old part of Las Vegas? It's such a classic area," she says, taking a break from painting and cleaning. "This should be where everybody goes."
Around the block, Naomi Arin and Jerry Misko are getting ready for their Friday grand opening of the Dust gallery in its new location at Main Street near Colorado Avenue. Previously tenants of the Arts Factory, Arin, while perusing an art fair in New York, decided that they needed to grow their gallery and also help grow the district. Within three days of making that decision, she and Misko found a spot just up the street from the Arts Factory with double the gallery size. It's a place that benefits them, but also the arts scene. And that, philosophically, is Arin's goal. To give people more access to and ingrain an appreciation and even an expectation of art. "There aren't many places of access here, so there's no way to form a habit," says Arin, who remembers going to galleries in New York when she was growing up. "And the thing that worries me most, which I'm really happy for First Friday, is for younger people, teens. Let an art gallery be their place to socialize. And let them look at art and remember looking at art when they get older, and they'll look at art and they'll keep looking at art." The new, sleek space also gave her and Misko the opportunity to expand their collection, which co-mingles Las Vegas work with pieces from Austria, New York, LA and elsewhere.
Further up the block, around the corner from Xtapa Furniture and Casa Don Juan Mexican Restaurant, a sign says Artistic Ironworks will be coming soon. Beyond that is the Holsum Bread Factory, which is being converted into lofts and business space. Notable progress abounds. But the more the area develops, the more the obstacles become apparent. It's not easy to get an art movement going in a town where residents view a painting involving breasts as pornography.
"What's funny," says Dray, "is there's a whole lot worse stuff going on down here. But they want to pick on the art."