Las Vegas, NV

December 10, 2020 Greetings Tour

Greetings from Las Vegas, Nevada. There’s a new welcome sign in town! The Las Vegas mural is our 44th postcard style mural across the country completing our 21st state. It’s been a while since we were able to paint a new state due to the travel restrictions with Covid this crazy year. We painted our latest postcard mural in the 18b Arts District at 1237 S Main St. on the corner of Colorado Ave.

Our goal was to finish 2020 off on a strong & positive note. We had the wall secured since February, but like everything else this year, our painting was postponed. Taking a pause from frequently work has made us extremely grateful for when we do get to produce and accomplish a new mural. Our mission is still very much alive, and we look forward to keep painting murals in every state.

Before getting the RV out of storage, we planned each day ahead of time taking necessary precautions to stay safe. Having the RV allows us to be self-contained by sleeping in there and cooking our own meals to avoid contact with others during COVID-19.

We put on our masks and met up with the building owner, Becky Miller. Becky wears many hats including a vintage shop owner and the VP of the 18b Arts District and has brought much of this area to life while avoiding major corporations. Thanks to the Atomic Style Lounge for electric and water. In addition, we found out that the building used to be a lab used for atomic testing back in the day. As a result, we had to incorporate something with that into the mural. Additionally, we wanted to thank local businesses who supported with some gift cards as well as Ahern Rentals for sponsoring the lift.

We have already been to this area before and couldn’t believe how much it has improved since our last visit. It’s amazing that art can attract all these new businesses & tourism. Obviously, we were happy to contribute to this cause as well! We worked from 7am sunrise to early winter sunsets at 4:30pm. The high desert nights & early mornings were cold for our now So-Cal souls, but we quickly got used to it. We also had our first attempt at using pounce patterns to create this postcard mural. It's a traditional way to transfer chalk outlines onto the wall through tiny holes burned into paper. It took some trial and error, but we will definitely start to implement this process in the future.

This wasn’t our first time to Vegas together. In 2014, we flew out here to start that West Coast road trip we always talk about that inspired us to do RV life. One of the most memorable things we’ve ever done (to this day) was taking a helicopter ride from Las Vegas down into to the Grand Canyon. That same trip, we visited a nearby park called Red Rock Canyon. We remember how beautiful and surprising both natural places were being so close to Vegas.

Fast Forward 5 years, we always knew we needed to paint in Las Vegas, but had to wait for the right opportunity. We initially had some meetings with the City of Las Vegas for some funding, but there was too much red tape and it fell through the cracks. However, we did receive some great ideas on what to incorporate in the piece from them. We ended up sourcing our own walls and also tried reaching out to the Arts District. Becky immediately got back to us with many wall options and gave us total creative freedom to do what we do best!

The purples chosen for the background represent the beautiful desert sunsets and sunrises. We worked with a few locals on additional imagery suggestions. As usual, we wanted to keep things timeless and not too cliché. Therefore, we incorporated more elements of nature and history into the mural. However, we did incorporate two hidden Elvis images inside the mural. We won’t tell you where it is but if you can find them send us a photo!

The city of Las Vegas is based off of tourism and is considered to be one of the cities hit the hardest economically from COVID-19. The hospitality and tourism industries are our main clients, and we have certainly felt the same effect. We donated this wall for many other reasons, but mostly in an effort to lift the community’s spirit in times like these. It’s our holiday gift back to the city where the seed was planted for the Greetings Tour!