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Carlsbad is seeing the painting on the wall with rise in street art works

CARLSBAD — The downtown Village area of Carlsbad has seen an uptick in street art over the past few months, possibly due to a new book on a famous British street artist. 

Street art, ranging from hand painted murals to spray-painted stencils to stickers, have decorated the sides of businesses and empty walls in the city for the past several years, primarily the work of local artist Bryan Snyder.

Yet around the time a new book about the famous street artist known as Banksy, “Banksy: The Man Behind the Wall,” was published earlier this year, the city has been the canvas for new creations by an unknown number of anonymous artists.While city maintenance and local businesses have taken down some of the works, some pieces have been preserved for several weeks.

Among them, a painting of bottle with a red angry face has remained along the side of the Pizza Port on Carlsbad Village Drive and person with a television set for a head playing a monster pinball machine stayed up on a wall along Grand Avenue, falling apart only due to weather.

Snyder said he feels that the community is starting to appreciate the street art in the Village and hasn’t been as hasty to take it down.

“This is the exact moment when vandalism becomes city art,” he said.

Skylar Ireton, owner of Skylar’s Home & Patio on State Street said that the street art “gives the Village a fresh look.”