Level Up Murals at the MGM Grand
Las Vegas Artsits unite to create an amazing instillation of Street Art and Graffitti at the MGM Grand
Your Studio 21 Artsits have been real busy! Ending the 2016 year with one of our BIGGEST Projects EVER. Austin lost his mind and decided to get everyone on board for a HUGE Street Art/ Graffitti Mural collab with the MGM Grand and Hakkasan Nightclub. Together their new pet project “Level Up” is right here in Las Vegas in the old Rainforest Cafe location atthe MGM. In less than 2 weeks Austin and Mike put together an amazing group of Local Artists and a few new strangers to take over the MGM!
Working with Hakkasan and MGM Grand was kick ass. We were fortunate enough to recieve all the artistic freedom in the world and an endless amount of clean new canvas. A total of 16 murals were completed in the Level Up Bar and Gaming space. At the start of the adventure it really wasnt aperent how much the art was actually going to be the main focal point of the bar. As we finished up the project, it was incredibly impressive how visually impacting the illustrations were.
Mike Biggs was brought on as Austins right hand man, bringing a great amount of talent and knowledge to the table. Mike and Austin worked together flawlessly as always, completing the 4 largest murals in Level Up. The super sexy “Disco Chic” with the afro was the first installation they completed. This piece was roughly 65 feet long and 15+ feet high! HUGE. Finished in three days, they moved on to the “Birds with Freakin’ Laser Beams” mural that was around 60 feet long and about the same height. Interesting thing about this piece, it was around 18 feet up in the air! This gave the guys the opportunity to spend a couple days about 25′ in the air on some Ahern scissor lifts. That was fun.
The bar was constructed around 13 square Pillars ranging in hieghts of 10′ to 27′ high and 3 feet in diameter. Austin pulled together a great group of super talented artists to attack these. Travis Jackson, an old friend of ours came on board to put together an always impressive super clean mural wrapping around his pillar. Travis’ girlfriend Kristina Collantes was also stoked to get involved and painted a super ellegant skelaton and flowers around her pillar that was pushing 13′ high. One of the crowd favorites was Casey Weldons crazy cat lady pillar! He did something like 55 cat portraits on this super colorful insane piece. The cats were peoples personal cats that had been submitted to Casey after they had donated to the NSPCA. Super fun interactive idea. So rad. Our very own Das Frank and Jay Swarm got involved too! These guys threw down some super cool vintage illustration styles refelcting classic comics and traditional american tattoo designs. Very simple touch that was impressivly impacting.
Overall the project went smooth as can be! We learned a lot and ended up walking away proud of what we accomplished along with two happy clients, couldnt ask for more. Thanks agian to all the artstists that participatied and worked thier asses off. Thanks to MGM Grand and Hakkasan most improtantly for giving up the chance to show you what tallent lies locally in this amazing Las Vegas Valley. You shoud be sure to check this spot out, not only if your visiting, but if your local! Its a really cool concept bringing the Downtown vibe to the Las Vegas Strip. Games, Beers, Gambling, Music, and ART can’t go wrong!
Artists:
Austin Spencer
Mike Biggs
Casey Weldon
Travis Jackson
Kristina Collantes
Spencer Olsen
Das Frank
Earl Funk
Swarm
Snipt
Kiwi Burt
Tyson Taumaoe
Jw Caldwell
Kd Matheson
The Spencer Family took a trip back down south recently to visit our family in good ol’ Houston, Tejas. We got a chance to introduce the newest member of the fam (Baby Lucy) to the Grandparents, cook some great meals and check out the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Being a car guy I was super excited to find out that the Museum had a really really cool exhibit , Sculpted in Steel: Art Deco Automobiles and Motorcycles, 1929–1940. We grabbed lunch and hung out with two of my favorite guys, my uncle John (Charlie’s brother) and my Grandpa Ted (Becki’s Dad). They rule. Grandpa Ted is hands down the most influential person in our family. A small business owner, Woodworker, landscaping all around creative man, my grandpa is the coolest. He’s the one who decides that when he’s interested in something, he goes ALL IN. He started framing artwork for my mom when she was a teenage illustrator and got so good and so “into” it that he ended up opening an Art Gallery and Frames shop. His wife my grandma Pat is also a very creative and hard working lady. She owned a wedding cake bakery in the same parking lot as my grandpas Frame Shop/Art Gallery. As a kid I spent a lot of time in both of the business cleaning and helping out the employees learning all sorts of things from making roses out of cake fondant to cutting frame molding and talking to clients. I never realized how much influence Grandpa Ted had on our family till we got our business going. I feel pretty special to be raised around him, being exposed to the idea that at anytime you want..you can just get into something and completely immerse yourself and maybe even start a business! I always wonder what I could possibly fall in love with next. Thanks Grandpa Ted for being so damn awesome. Thanks for checking out the new blog and hope to keep up on it more.