Sunday, April 10, 2016
"Mike aka @BUS166". While walking around San Pedro on Friday night with @mervinsnaps we strolled into the @machinestudio. Amongst the graffiti murals and the boxes of salvaged computer parts a bearded wonder comes out from the back of the art space with his 3 little dogs. Mike was a graphic designer from Los Angeles who is turning his passion for street art to an endeavor for his adopted community of San Pedro. His shop sells graphic pens, paint markers, sketchbooks, and spray paint. However, his main focus is to open up his space for San Pedro to create positive art, primarily street art. He allows visitors to design and paint ceramic tiles that will be featured on one of the walls and draw in community sketchbooks, called Machine Blackbooks, with the only rules of "No Beef, No Tags, and No Stickers". The boxes of salvaged computer parts were of course, for an art project for the community. His space is also open for local artists to display their work.
Growing up in the neighboring city of Carson, the only graffiti I was exposed to was the gangs putting up their gang names on the walls as quickly as possible. This lead to people being afraid to go out at night because they felt that their community wasn't theirs anymore. BUS166 is turning what a lot of these kids are only exposed to into something more meaningful; art that is accessible for everyone and that makes people want to come out and look at the walls.