The Velvet Bandit: Mendocino County’s Very Own Street Artist
The Velvet Bandit hails from Willits. She told us in the wake of a 23-year-marriage and subsequent divorce she sought art as a refuge and release. Living in Santa Rosa, last year she was positioned to show her art in a gallery when the pandemic forced it to close. She said, “I have been an artist my entire life” so she decided to make public spaces her new gallery.
Her alias, The Velvet Bandit, originated from a green velvet couch she purchased after her divorce which she characterized as a “symbol of independence.” She told us she began acquiring more velvet items around her home and when it came time to create a street artist name, her friend suggested the Velvet Bandit.
The Velvet Bandit began placing her art in public places at the beginning of the pandemic aiming to “connect with people” and “bring some light to the situation.” Since then, she told us “my art evolved over time. After the killing of George Floyd I did some Black Lives Matter pieces. Around the election, I did some stuff to get people to vote. Now, I’m doing pro-vaccine pieces.” Overall, she hopes to “sprinkle good vibes.”
Using her Santa Rosa garage as her studio, the Velvet Bandit paints her images on newsprint, each one individually hand-painted and hand-cut.
Her work stands in contrast to some of the gritty aesthetics of many street artists with vibrant colors and abstract imagery. She said “I wanted to create something that people like to look at, something fun. I use a lot of retro images.”
The Velvet Bandit is active on social media curating an Instagram account, Facebook page, and a website. She uses social media to “connect with other street artists.” She told us last week she went to Portland, Oregon, and met up with a group of street artists she had met via social media.
The Velvet Bandit is always “scanning for targets,” she said. When choosing a location to paste her art, she tries “ to stay away from private property.” She likes electrical boxes and other municipal buildings “because I feel like I have a right to those areas because I’m a taxpayer.” She pointed out that her work “doesn’t cause any type of permanent damage” and “If I do get caught in the act I can just take it down right away.”
She started off using the cover of night to protect her from suspicious eyes but has found that it is “easier to do it during broad daylight. Everyone is staring at their phones. No one pays attention to this lady with a paintbrush.”
Mendocino County has left an indelible impression on the Velvet Bandit’s artistic DNA. She remembers being a 16-year-old student at Willits High School where she got her first taste of public art when she and her friends tried to do a mural that “was terribly executed.” Just this year, the Velvet Bandit was invited to be a special guest at Willits High School’s art class where she Zoomed in, wearing a mask, and talked to art students about her labors. The art teacher even gave her permission to paste some of her work around the high school which she said, “was cool to return years later and vandalize the high school with permission.”
When asked how Mendocino County’s ethos influences her art, she explained, “My art tries to be fun and give good vibes. That’s what Mendo means to me.”
When asked how she would address folks who see her work as sheer vandalism, she said, “It’s removable, I think it is pretty to look at. I think people enjoy seeing it. I think art is essential and it’s my civic duty.”
She described an occasion where a resident caught her in the act and called her a “nut job” for her efforts. She returned the next day, found her art had been taken down, and she put in its place a painting of a squirrel with the text caption, “I’m a Nut Job.”
Community members interested in finding the Velvet Bandit’s art in the community, she suggested some of the locations her street art can be found:
- Her Lady of Corona series is on the side Willits’s Mazahar clothing, in a nearby ally, and around the Noyo Theater
- Some of her art can be found near the Boonville Fairground on the opposite side of Highway 128
- Her art is plastered near Fort Bragg Noyo Harbor and in Fort Bragg’s Downtown.
- Multiple pieces are in Hopland and in downtown Ukiah near the Palace Hotel.
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I think she also did the RBG, which we love! Thank you Velvet Artist!
Yes! I have this shirt. 🙂
I love the Velvet Bandit!
This chick is a fucking bad ass!!!
It’s hard to tell from these photos where this art is, most appear to be on insignificant surfaces. As long as it’s not some scribbled tag or defacing some other established art, I’m all for it. Be careful on the social media, this stuff is still illegal and someone will get pissed. And wheat paste comes off somewhat easily.
Also tastes good with some cinnamon.
Wassup brotendo! You want to chug some ranch?
Positive messages and puns – delightful.
I would call it art if she asked the property owners permission to put it up. Otherwise it is vandalism, no matter how great it is.
Omg Ernie .
Read more than the headline and graphics before you comment?
“When choosing a location to paste her art, she tries “ to stay away from private property.” She likes electrical boxes and other municipal buildings “because I feel like I have a right to those areas because I’m a taxpayer.”
Besides, they are literally painted on flimsy ass newsprint ffs and glued on with wall paper paste! Extremely temporary.
I’m with Ernie!
In public places on public properties, this is vandalism. She’s not exactly Banksey, either…
With owner’s permission, murals or artworks as commissioned or agreed to, fine.
In public without permission, Graffiti is property-destruction!
Get with it, it’s not cool, and it’s illegal.
Ok boomer
Baby Boomers worked their asses off, in the 60’s and 70’s when the minimum wage was $1.60/hour, in order to create a world where pot farmers and real-estate flippers would end up with all the property and wealth…
Drug dealers, weed barons, Realtors and Winemakers/Property Financiers are who you should complain about, and all the scrimy taggers and “street artists” in the world protesting and making “political statements”, they should get a fucking job of work to do…
I’m, an artist too, I create items of value from supplies when I add labor. This person creates work for others and offends the eye while adding no value to a place with many other concerns and problems. The citizens of Mendocino County should repudiate specious vandalism and get a measure of control over the utter chaos in their county!
If that sounds like the thought of a “Baby Boomer” to you, then tough shit! I have spent some time in Willow Creek… It’s pretty out-of-control itself…
I agree with Ernie.
I will also add that it is pretty presumptuous to help yourself to any public space you desire. Privilege?
Some property and business owners actually request her art!
Reminds me of an artist from the UK named Banksy.
Go spray paint that shit on your own property, oh wait you don’t own any….
It’s not spray paint.
I think it’s kind of a decal is all.
Comes off with water, maybe.
Bad? Maybe.
Maybe not that bad.
But is this really art? Or is this one person forcing the rest of us to experience her curated expressions of inner musings? The great question- Is it art? Or is it fart? (The related question will be addressed next week- Is it woke? Or is it wook?)
I’d say neitherm.m.. rbg and masks and voting are all part of the smokescreen
Is your comment…Woke? Or Wook? You jumped the discussion of next week’s topic!
Neither. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand .. go listen to John mayer and have fun
You sound bitter. Go buy yourself a Scarlet Fire Package and really listen to the deepness of John Mayer’s lyrics. Find yourself puking in the portajohn for top dollar, bro!
One question still remains – “How much art can you take”?
I’m sorry, when I was a young adult, the political street art we did was subversive and anti-establishment.
The velvet bandits art seems pretty establishment, and represents the progressive norms of our state.
No new ideas.
To prove my point, she even says she visited Portland recently to visit her ideological brethren lol.
And she’s doing pro-vaccine pieces?😂
Seems like prop art for the skit system
She convinced me to never vote democrat like a true anti conformist. Rebels of the past never pushed for the use of corporate pharmaceuticals. Funny how the leftists are the racists & conformists now days.
Part of me thinks these towns need all the help they can get to add personality, Another part thinks it’s a magnet for taggers. All of me thinks if she’s going to do it, keep it non political.
And get permission first. I up vote Ernie.
All of you making the quintessential “okay, Boomer” comments need to get over yourselves and, if possible, get a life. This woman’s art is well-executed, not vulgar, and like everything else about humanity, far from permanent. Art by its very nature enriches the life of the viewer as much as the creator, reminding us that everything about our shared world is merely a work-in-progress that can evolve along with us if allowed to.
You’re entitled to your opinion, of course, even if it’s provincial and the product of a small mind, but it sure would be lovely if you were occasionally inclined to think far enough outside yourselves to consider the potential benefits to others before declaring something a nuisance simply because you weren’t considered important enough to seek permission from first. Your irrelevance is not a predicate for determining the criminality of others’ behavior, sheesh.
Being Provincial is a good attribute to many of us.
I would much rather represent the local, than the global.
Sounds like the rouge scholar is merely a globalist who likes to use his systemic education to further the cause of the colonists.
And, Art is not merely scribbling on paper or paintings, it is craft.
Craft is true Art.
For those of you who didn’t read carefully — it’s on newsprint and put up with wallpaper paste. Both of which are temporary and unlikely to cause any damage to any exterior surface she’s putting it on. I imagine a garden hose would remove it completely and time certainly will as newsprint decays in sunlight and the paste is water-soluble. So if it’s vandalism it’s certainly the least damaging vandalism I’ve seen.
As for her aesthetic, it’s hers. Not yours. You can enjoy it or not, just like with any artistic endeavor. Not everything has to be politically significant.
Temporary? Not even close. Wheat paste can be pretty permanent and extremely hard to remove. Go ask Shepherd Fairey. A lot of his wheatpastes still run in SF, NYC, LA after decades. There’s even stickers that are impossible to remove, ask BNE who plastered cities with his stickers and cities could never remove them and even asked for help . “ In 2006, B.N.E. so blanketed San Francisco that the city’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, offered a reward of $2,500 for information leading to his capture.”
I don’t usually agree with you. But you got a decent point here, Tim! Now let’s just get along fine and let’s not mention covid or vaccines- Doh!!! I blew it…
Sprucing up the place. I love your art and messages. Ukiah n Willits needs your fun good vibes. Don’t let the nut jobs distract you from beautification
Ukiah has a Hot Stuff bottle and it cracks me up every time I see it
It’s more Art that any fucking highway billboard forcing BS images into your subconscious…..if her art upsets you…. YOU’VE ALREADY BEEN UPSET FOR A VERY LONG TIME!!…
Some of it is art sure
.but the political gesturing and stuff is just annoying
KUDOS to the esteemed Velvet Bandit!
She is carefully, conscientiously offering her ART to seemingly random places in Mendo county. I appreciate it!
Street art and social commentary are a great gift to society! It helps break the monotony and drab, often lifeless environment we circulate in.
Street art is to provoke, a smile, a thought, a frown, but some stimulation to the human mind. Without art we and all cultures are a much poorer.
DONT BLAME ME I VOTED FOR TRUMP!
J
. . .
This gal gave me an absolute lift right when I needed it most. Velvet Bandit, wherever you are, keep going. May Divine Grace support your work. ⭐️
These are cute, positive and funny.
The same liberal hypocrites who condone this shitty “artwork” and yell at you for calling it vandalism would be denouncing you and calling it vandalism themselves if it was Clarence Thomas instead of RBG and anti vax rather than pro vax. More double standards. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Roger that Rollin! 👍
I may get moderated for this, but, it is a real billboard.
Anti-vax billboard ‘fear speech, not free speech’, Health Minister wants it taken down – ABC News
Jeez, you look at all the anti vax stuff here and you think I’d take down that…?
Thanks Kym.
It’s nice to read the comments to fully understand what A-holes people around here can be.
It’s funny how health/medical things like masks, and vaccines are deemed political now. Is reminding people to cover their mouths when coughing another Democrat ploy as well? Perhaps meticulously planned over decades to one day brainwash the masses! Look out…
And did someone say the left are the racists now? That’s completely laughable. There maybe some of course, but look who’s trying to change voting laws making it harder for minorities to vote… republicans.
The difference between vandalism and street art is like the difference between doggerel and poetry. And I do like The Velvet Bandit’s sensibility of seeing poesy in the mundane.