Banksy Has Worked With Charlie Brown Before

A lot of people criticized Banksy's use of Charlie Brown as one of his pieces in LA, but this is not the first time Banksy has worked with Charlie Brown.

Banksy released this piece with Charlie Brown standing under the shadow of an airplane soon after 9/11.

While the piece in LA was not one of our personal favorites, maybe Banksy utilizes the Charlie Brown imagery when he wants to take the viewers back to a simple, child-like state.

Hell, in this day and age, and since we don't seem to know the whole story behind Banksy's pieces, maybe Banksy bought the rights to the Charles Schulz characters before using them.

Thanks to Fragile from the Banksy Forums for pointing this out.

Banksy's Charlie Brown Kissed Goodbye

Even though Banksy's Charlie Brown is long gone, the art keeps coming. Click the jump for more

The hole where Banksy's Charlie Brown once resided got a new wheat paste saying Good Bye, and some stenciled red lips, as if to say 'We love you, and miss you".

Its really great to see all these responses to Banksy's pieces.

Thanks to Jon, or Twiztid Kid for these shots. For more from this series and much more Banksy, check out Jon's Flickr

Free Street Art Found (By Famous Movie Producers!)

Today was an exciting day for free street art in LA with both Bankrupt Slut and 2wenty placing art in the streets for people to find and take home.

Well, those pieces got found, two by famous movie producers, and a third by a street art enthusiast who nabbed both the Bankrupt Slut dunny and a 2wenty Facebook piece. Click the jump for more pics and info

^From left to right, Keith Toll, Morgon Jon Fox, Craig Brewer.

Its a small world full of wonder and chance meetings. And these scavengers hunts led to one such story.

Award winning movie producer Craig Brewer has won a Sundance Audience Award (the award given to the top film at the festival) and Academy Award for best song for his movie Hustle & Flow. Craig is currently producing a modern remake of Footloose. And he has taken a huge interest in street art.

Craig had another friend, Memphis based filmaker Morgon Jon Fox, visiting from out of town and they had spent the last few days following the coverage on MELROSEandFAIRFAX and chasing Banksy's pieces around LA. While hanging out in front of Banksy's Charlie Brown they met a guy named Keith Toll, and told him about this blog.

Well, fast forward to a few days later, today, and about two hours after we had posted the location of the Bankrupt Slut dunny, Keith emailed us and told us that he had found it. We congratulated him and he sent a few pics.

Keith returned to his home in Ventura, 40 miles away from Melrose and Fairfax. But then when we posted 2wenty's street art search, Keith jumped back in his car and headed over to this area. Meanwhile, Craig and Morgan had just found 2 of the free pieces of art from 2wenty. And all three of these guys, Keith, Craig and Morgan came together, and by random chance their world's collided again and they all met up at the third, which Keith is taking home. So Craig, Morgan and Keith all scored a cool piece of free street art today, and Keith hit a double bonus by also snagging the piece from Bankrupt Slut.

We are honored and thrilled to have such big names following the blog, and even more impressed with the enthusiasm of these guys to chase down these pieces. Street art is blowing up and only getting bigger! There are going to be more street art giveaways (with another dunny coming tomorrow from Bankrupt Slut!), and it seems people better move quick if they want to snag one!

And, folks might choose to believe us or not but we really didn't know Keith and there is no hooking up or favoritism. This dude just really has an incredible passion for street art, and spent the rest of the day he wasn't chasing dunnys and art tracking down the JR locations. We think it is awesome to see folks so hyped like Keith, and it is so great that all these pieces found a great new home with these famous and dedicated lovers of street art.

Congrats guys!

***NOTE: 3 of 2wenty's 4 pieces have been found. We couldn't find the 4th ourselves, but 2wenty posted the location in the comments of the earlier post announcing his scavenger hunt. It might still be there . . . ***

Thanks For Being Selfish!!! Love, Banksy's Fans

Banksy's Charlie Brown just won't go away~

A printed out version of Charlie, along with a note that said 'Thanks for being selfish!!! love, Banksy's fans'. Click the jump for more

Just as Banksy's art itself seems to stir up controversy, the treatment of the pieces themselves is a real lightning rod, as well.

Big thanks to Pete Williams for sending in these pics~

Bankrupt Slut Dunny - Found!

Bankrupt Slut has been doing a cool thing with a free street art giveaway of 7 customized Kidrobot Dunnys.

MELROSEandFAIRFAX supporter 'Mike' followed the location details posted on the blog, and took home this piece of free street art, dunny #2.

He sent us some pics of the Bankrupt Slut dunny getting slutty all over the house. The dunny is now hanging with Skullphone, playing darts, and still following MELROSEandFAIRFAX. Very cool. Click the jump below for more

These are really fun shots that really capture the spirit that the scavenger hunt, and the blog, are all about.

Thanks for the pics, Mike! And congrats on the score! It is great to know that the dunny found such a good home
The first one was was left above Banksy's Charlie Brown, but we have not hear from whoever found it.


^Hangin with Skullphone!


^still checkin out MELROSEandFAIRFAX


and still getting up!

WARNING: Ebay Charlie Brown is a Fake

Yesterday we posted a link to an ebay listing purporting to sell Banksy's Charlie Brown.

The bidding has jumped to over $5,000, and we just wanted to inform the readers that we believe this piece is a scam.

We warned at the time that it seemed sketchy since there were no original pics in the listing, and the description is deceptively vague as it gets calling the piece for sale 'a chunk of concrete with a stenciled art piece on it'.

Hopefully there is still time to cancel bids, but buyer beware!

Banksy is Dead Piece Stolen

Because the 'Banksy is Dead' wheat paste went up right after Banksy's Charlie Brown piece was taken out of the wall, we initially thought that it might be from Banksy, and we posted that on the blog.

Someone thought it was worth taking, and the 'Banksy is Dead' piece has been taken, and the hole replaced by yet another piece of plywood.

Too bad its not still riding, because we got some great shots with the Fire Department showing up at the spot today. Click the jump for more.

BEST of BANKSY on MELROSEandFAIRFAX

MELROSEandFAIRFAX has been at the forefront of all the Banksy action in LA. In fact, we think we were the first internet source to post all four pieces and have had the exclusive jump on the action that has happened since.

It all started with a tip we received on the blog we hunted down Banksy's Crayon Soldier. We didn't know anything about Lauren Conrad's tweet at the time, like most internet sources, and even though she technically had the inside scoop, we were the first to launch the initial pics of Banksy's Crayon Soldier.

Before the thrill of the first Banksy had even worn off, we were tipped off on another Banksy- the Charlie Brown on Sunset, and we rushed over to take the first pics, and put QtipTheCat in the pics for good measure.

On the way home from Charlie, we snapped pics of what we thought at the time was just another impressive graffiti billboard takeover and posted them that same night. We were the first ones in the world to post these images, but had no idea that 'Livin the Dream' was Banksy at the time. The next day Banksy posted the images on his website and word got out that the billboard was a Banksy.

We had hardly got done posting that the billboard was indeed a Banksy when a viewer submitted pics of the pissing Bulldog. We blasted the pics out there not sure at the time whether it was a Banksy or not. It was, and we locked down the position of being the first internet source to cover each of Banksy's four new pieces in Los Angeles.

It has been a wild ride that did not stop with the discovery but led on to Charlie being boarded up, and then uncovered and drilled, and finally removed and put on ebay.

As if that weren't drama enough, Livin the Dream got taken down and respectable folks almost came to fists fighting over it.

And aside from all the pieces themselves, there have been all kinds of great community stories including rumors about other pieces by Banksy, Banksy getting spot-jacked, stories of dedication from the legions of Banksy fans, street art dedicated to Banksy's street art, not to mention good dialogue on the topic of street art.

But perhaps the coolest thing has been the way the community has flocked to MELROSEandFAIRFAX for the latest breaking news on Banksy, and not only find out about what's happening, but contribute to the making the story itself and submitting, what we believe to be exclusive shots of Banksy's Crayon Soldier before it was buffed.

It has been a wild ride, and we have only managed 10 hours of sleep the last 3 nights combined. It has been well worth it, and we have loved every moment of this chase. Huge thanks to all the viewers, followers, and contributors who have made all this magic happen!

And our personal guess is that there might be a new crop of Banksy street art in Los Angeles after the Oscars are awarded. Win or lose, we expect to see something. (But c'mon, no doubt Banksy is going to win! When is the last time people were talking about the award so much?)

Keep checking back to MELROSEandFAIRFAX for the latest, greatest breaking news on Banksy in LA.

Banksy Was a Big Deal

The hottest spot in LA the past few days has been in front of a Banksy piece.

We spent 15 minutes or so by the Charlie Brown piece yesterday before it got taken down, and during that brief time, a dozen or so people came by. Click the jump for more

We chatted with and met a lot of cool people, and arguably the chillest is this dude, Eric, the photographer.

Eric was shooting on actual film, not digital, and he was even super cool when Shasta stucker her nose in the lens to say hi.

It was really awesome to see all the art lovers flock to these pieces, and it seems like everyone on Melrose is walking around with their cameras out this week. Really cool stuff~

Banksy is Dead, Art is Dead

This piece of street art seems to be from the same person who put up the 'Banksy is Dead' wheat paste over the crater where Banky's Charlie Brown used to be.

The writing says, 'are you fake. are you sure. art is dead.'

It is placed next to one of Alec's Twiggy pieces on Melrose. Not sure if it is a slight at Banksy, Alec, or the whole of street art in general. Click the jump for more

We think that this is the same artist because of the dead thing, and some posters went up lower down on this building that have the same framed outline as the 'Banksy is Dead' wheat paste, suggesting the same person.

Interesting stuff. Banksy has really inspired some street commentary here in Los Angeles.

Banksy's Charlie Brown on Ebay

After the chunk of wall was removed, it was only a matter of time until Banksy's Charlie Brown stencil showed up on Ebay. But who knew it would be so quick?

Although it never mentions Banksy's name, ebay item number 250775628024is reportedly selling the Charlie Brown piece of the wall.

We are not sure if this is legit or not. A good rule of thumb is to be wary of items for sale on ebay that do not have an original picture, and the picture used is of the removal where there was a crowd of people taking pictures (in fact, it seems to be the picture that we posted earlier on the blog!). It would have a lot more credibility if there were more pics of the actual chunk after being removed.

Still, there will be bids on this. Wonder how much it will go for? . . .

The Story Behind Charlie Brown Being Taken

We received a detailed run down of what went down with Banksy's Charlie Brown. Apparently, it was almost painted over before being chopped out. Click the jump below for more actions shots and to read the full story about what went down at the Charlie Brown removal.

We received the pictures and description from the followers of MELROSEandFAIRFAX. Big thanks to all the supporters of MELROSEandFAIRFAX who have been our eyes and ears all over the city. We couldn't do it without you. Special thanks to Cindy Bolf for the rundown and Layla Halfhill for the action pictures.

Cindy contacted us with the following description.

I have been watching your site to get all the up-to-date stories on the Banksy pieces showing up all over LA. You have been doing a great job!

I am writing to give some back story on the Charlie Brown piece. After I saw on your website that it was uncovered, I was so excited that I headed over to the location to get a look at it. I got there at around 4 in the afternoon. There were people there, taking pictures of it and there were 2 dudes. One of them you have pictured in the red hoodie. The other guy that was with him said that they uncovered the Charlie Brown and were going to paint over it. I asked why and if he knew what this was. He said he had no idea what the picture was and what it meant but he had orders from his boss. His boss owned the property and when his boss found out that someone else came to the property and drilled holes in the wall and there was plans for someone else to cut out the wall, they freaked and decided that painting over the Charlie Brown would prevent further vandalism to the building. This guy and red hoodie guy were working with property management.

Many people that came to see the piece pleaded with this guy to not paint over it and told him that it was worth a lot of money, probably even worth more than the charred building that it was on. Well, he and the dude in the red hoodie starting making some phone calls to their boss when they found out that it was worth a lot of money. To further add to the drama, there was a group of 3 guys, one who said he flew in from NY yesterday, was calling his boss to put an offer in on the building to save the Charlie Brown or to maybe cut it out themselves once the building was theirs.

Well, the actual owner of the building put a hold on painting over the Charlie Brown and instead decided that since he owned the building, he was going to order property management to cut out the Charlie Brown instead of painting over it. They boarded it up and said that they are going to wait until people leave to start cutting it out. Then they starting talking about what tools they will use to get it out of there.

Either way, the whole situation is a shame but ultimately, the Charlie Brown wasn't painted over and it is safe somewhere so it saw the better of two lesser ends. I feel that if no one came along with the intention of stealing it, this piece might still be here for everyone to enjoy.

Again, great job on reporting. Looking forward to reading future posts!

Cindy Bolf

Video of Charlie Brown Getting Ganked

A Youtube video just surfaced capturing the action of Banksy's Charlie Brown piece being cut out of the wall.

It really seems like this is a professional job, and it feels more and more like this was placed to be taken.

Big thanks to 'imapixie' for the head up!

These Are The Guys Stealing the Banksy!

Thanks to the guys at The Comedy Store, we just got some exclusive action shots of Banksy's Charlie Brown being 'stolen' from the wall. Click the jump below for more

It sounds like another wild episode with a crowd of unhappy onlookers who even tried calling the cops.

Check out The Comedy Store's Tumblr for the full store about 'those creeps that stole the Banksy.'

Banksy is Dead

The wall that Banksy's Charlie Brown has been ripped out of the building, and a new wheat paste has been affixed in that spot saying 'Banksy is Dead'. Click the jump for more.

This is not a piece of plywood covering the piece. This is a piece of plywood covering a massive hole in the wall where the Banksy used to be.

It really seems like this piece might have been placed at this spot with the intention of being removed. And, not sure, but we think the 'Banksy is Dead' wheat paste, might be from Banksy himself.

Huge thanks to Adam from The Loyal Subjects for the timely info and the pics. The Loyal Subjects is one of LA's producers of top designer vinyl art, and have some really cool things going on. It is well worth checking out.

Fascinating to see how this develops, and stay tuned to MELROSEandFAIRFAX to be the first in the know for the what's happening with Banksy.

Charlie Brown Gets Covered -Again- and a Security Guard

Banksy's Charlie Brown on Sunset has been covered again, and a sketchy looking security guard has been posted in front of the piece. Click the jump for more

Not sure who the security guard is with, or if he is even legit. Stay tuned to MELROSEandFAIRFAX for the latest on this ongoing saga.

Big thanks to 2wenty for sending us these pics!

Banksy Gets Spot-Jacked

Banksy's Charlie Brown got spot jacked on Sunset.

Click the jump for more

There was recently a big uproar on this blog about what exactly is spot jacking, especially if there are no rules on the streets.

In this blog's opinion, spot jacking is when a piece of street art fits well in a place (usually by itself), and it is spot jacked when another piece is put there in a way that changes the flavor. The second piece is usually accused of spot jacking when they are trying to get credit for getting up next to the primary piece of art, but don't really respect the space. (if a piece of street art goes up in a place that is already filled with street art, then the term is not really used).

This is a clear spot jack with this massive 'Teach' stencil. We have seen one earlier Teach stencil, and we really liked it. It was powerfully placed by itself on Sunset, and it would have been considered spot jacking if someone had got up there.

Also, there is a little Karmaloop sticker, and a Bankrupt Slut dunny added up top. We've got a cool story on the dunny from Bankrupt Slut coming up soon.

At least this spot jack respected the actual Banksy piece, and did not interfere with it in any way.

Barbie Has a Photoshoot on Sunset

On the way home from Charlie Brown, we came across Barbie doing a photoshoot on Sunset. Click the jump for more

This is a professional photoshoot for Barbie promotional purposes. Notice the Ken billboard in the background.

^yeah, she might be a toy, but we were trying to get an upskirt shot! (just like when we were kids-always take the clothes off!)

Banksy Gets Drilled

MELROSEandFAIRFAX went and snapped our own exclusive shots of the holes drilled around Banksy's Charlie Brown piece on Sunset.

There are holes and cuts made as if to remove a chunk from the building. Click the jump below for more

These marks were made by some serious industrial tools. You can see the deep indentions which might be preparation to have a bigger section of the wall removed.

After we had snapped shots, a friend called and asked if we had noticed the saw marks on the right side. We did see a pile of dust and mortar on the ground, but we didn't notice the saw marks at the time. It seems that maybe some has already tried cutting it out, but it didn't work.

As of an 11:45 this was still up and visible. Who knows how long it will last. Hurry over to Sunset and La Cienega if you want to see this Banksy piece in person!

Banksy is Big News

Even the major news outlets are covering Banksy.

This van was setting up to broadcast from a spot near Banksy's Charlie Brown site.

And MELROSEandFAIRFAX has had its own share of International Press as we collaborated with major news outlets The Independent from London, and TheWeek.com.

Both of these are major news outlets and it was an honor to work with both, but being featured on TheWeek was a special treat because we grew up in a home that subscribes to the magazine, and we have great respect for it as one of the best news sources in this day and age.