The Original Spring Street - Before 190 Bowery

As a New York City street artist since 2006 I have seen 'street art oasis' come and go. One of the first NYC street art landmarks from the early era of wheat paste art was the original Spring Street (at the corner of Elizabeth Street in NoLita north of Little Italy). This was the corner of Spring Street that when it ceased to exist as a NY street art oasis in early 2007, the opposite corner at Spring-Bowery began to vegetate layers of paper and pasted art on the Germania Bank building, which also became extinct eight years later as a street art landmark in early 2015.

Many of the artists seen here in 2006 have either risen to higher levels and are considered pioneers of early NYC and global street art such as, The Flower Guy, The London Police, Stickman and others and there are wheat-paste artists who long ago have only ceased to exist and dropped off the scene.

New York wheat-paste art has changed with the coming and goings of the guard of artists from the time I stepped onto the scene 14 years ago. I have witnessed various street art landmarks go from having layers of lush pasted art that only grew with every added layer giving the breath of life to a living organism. Then to watch it just dry up and disappear from the ever expanding occupation of redevelopment or in other terms, gentrification, that also befell The Candy Factory in 2011 on Wooster Street in SOHO (south of Housten).

As the new New York progressively expands the city's wheat-paste oasis will dry up and simply vanish into a once upon a time NYC nostalgia and a time to remember.