Renegade Art

One of the things I like best about Tampa, and something I’d like to see a lot more of here, is finding art in unexpected places. There’s the Welcome to Tampa postcard mural on the building on Florida Ave, near the interstate. There’s the metal dragon on Kennedy Blvd. Even the giant lizard on that building downtown is, well, something to talk about. Recently, I’ve begun to notice smaller pieces of art, of the spray paint and stencil variety.

Maybe you’ve seen them in Ybor City, Downtown, or Seminole Heights. Maybe you’ve wondered what they are, why they are there, or who made them. We’ll answer two of those three questions for you. For obvious reasons, we will refer to the artist simply as MA, short for Mystery Artist. I recently had the opportunity to talk with MA about the art, the method, and the motivation behind it.

MA has been a fan of street art for many years, and made the foray into creating it last December. The very first piece was created on a concrete overpass piling, and consisted of two bombs that contained the words “poverty” and “greed”. The artist notes that a few days later, someone added a dirty old mattress and bed frame to the installation, and likes to think it was collaborative art, rather than plain old dumping.


Here’s what MA had to say when I asked about the motivation behind the art: “The motivation came from the desire to actually blow up real banks…which I guess makes the message that I’m a pussy. But, the TRS [signature] that goes with them stands for “Transformation Requires Sacrifice”, and that’s personal to me, as well as a political message about what I think needs to be obliterated.”

Finally, I asked MA what the best and worst things about being a street artist in Tampa are. Predictably, the answer was, [the illegality] “makes the best thing about Tampa the fact I haven’t been caught! And the worst thing – that I might!”

So, the next time you’re in Ybor City (near the Cuban Club or New World Brewery) or downtown (near The Hub), take the time to look around. You just might find art in unexpected places.