Exit Through Rexburg

There's a strange phenomenon going on in Rexburg. (Actually, there are two: the other one is that apparently everyone in Rexburg just decided to start over, building-wise. At least seven buildings have been razed to the ground in the last few months. But that's not what I want to blog about. I want to blog about the other phenomenon in Rexburg.)

First of all, an introduction. The world of street art has been making its way into my consciousness with increasing enthusiasm over the last year or so. After discovering Banksy and other street artists, and after watching the award-winning documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop," I'm a pretty big fan. I said that once and someone said "But, is Banksy still as awesome now that his stuff is being shown in museums and auctioned off at $500,000 a piece?" I replied, "Good art is good art." And while the whole illegality thing IS admittedly part of the awesomeness, I mostly just appreciate the sheer creativity of works like Banksy's. (See examples HERE.)

And okay, I love the "I will leave my mark on the world" feeling to creative street art. There's some tagging/graffiti (ok, a lot) that I don't appreciate...any fool with a spray can is capable of writing the F-word on a train car. But good street art is almost like "branding," both in the cow-poke sense and in the corporate America sense.

And all of this is why I'm intrigued by this recent Rexburg discovery:

There's someone going about Rexburg with a spray can and a dash of creativity! They're no Banksy or Shepherd Fairey or Invader, but "RINO" is making a mark nonetheless.

Jacob and I have decided to call this mystery artist "RINO" because of the three above examples. (The "RINO was sloppy" one I discovered just today while going out to photograph these.) There are a handful of stenciled works, which is a signature Banksy thing, that I think are fun:

But "RINO's" signature thing is these bug-eyed faces:

I find them endearing. They remind me of Tim Burton sketches. And I guess, technically, the stencils and the bug-faces could be done by different people. But because of the locations of the art, and because it's REXBURG, I'm pretty sure it's either one person, or two people that are working together. It's simply impossible to assume that Rexburg has TWO independent street artists, working simultaneously.

So far, I'm a fan of all this. Even if it's illegal. It's a difficult thing, because if I support this, why not support anyone who wants to draw anything anywhere? So far, my reasoning is that I support the creative spirit wherever it manifests, but the main thing is that it's actually ART...or at least it fits more into that category than in the "vandalism" category. Of course, that's almost completely subjective, so I'll just say that it's purely my opinion, and I can't think of any way to reach an objective conclusion.

I like the mustached face. He's so expressive. My favorite are the eyeglasses. They remind me of The Great Gatsby. Rexburg's own "Dr. T.J. Eckleberg."

(Also, I felt awesome and like an underground journalist, driving around Rexburg and walking down railroad tracks to take these pictures. When I was photographing the eyeglasses, a man working nearby asked me if "That was my art." Which I denied.)