Street Artist Sand-One Art Bombs Highland Park

In April, notorious French street artist , making his mark on York Boulevard and N. Figueroa Street.

Three months later, Los Angeles based graffiti artist Sand-One has left a striking visual statement of her own.

A Sand-One “Sand Chick” now adorns the wall of Mi Vida Boutique on 5159 York Blvd.

Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch has contacted Sand-One through her blog, and we’ll update the story with her thoughts about working in the area when we hear back from her.

Mi Vida owners Danell Hughes and Noelle Reyes said they received an e-mail from a friend of Sand-One’s prior to Second Saturday Gallery Night on Saturday, June 11, with a request to “bomb the wall.”

“She showed up at 8 p.m. on Saturday and started the mural and then she came back and finished it the next day,” Hughes said.

According to Hughes and Reyes, Sand-One’s mural is a perfect representation of the kind art and clothing on sale inside Mi Vida, which offers an eclectic array of Chicano fashion, visual art and hand-made crafts.

“It’s important for people like us to represent and we’re the kind of people that can do that. We’re from these streets,” said Reyes, a native of Los Angeles. “We love to collaborate with and to support local artists, so we were really happy to have her paint this mural.”

Reyes said her and Hughes’ influences run the gamut from Chicano art to punk rock, all of which inform the selection at Mi Vida.  Reyes and Hughes said the arts and crafts on display were all made either by local artists or the owners themselves. The same goes for the clothing, with a portion of pieces also being imported from L.A.’s fashion district.

Mi Vida was formerly located at the intersection of Huntington and Fremont in South Pasadena, Reyes said. The two business owners, who are cousins, made the move to Highland Park because of its thriving arts scene and growing pedestrian culture, Hughes said.

“We needed a change of pace, a little different environment,” she said. “There’s a lot more happening in Highland Park.”