From some angles, it’s just an odd pile of cardboard boxes. But from the right vantage point, an intricate image appears.
First, there’s a giant skull—head kicked back in eternal agony. A few lines of spray paint drip from its teeth, resembling spittle, as it cries out a silent scream. This is perhaps how we all feel, coming out of the deadly, disastrous plague year also known as 2020.
But upon second look, the viewer notices a beautiful, blue-haired woman emerging from the top of the skull. She’s a street art angel, with a sleeve of tattoos covering her arms and wings. A golden halo floats above her head as she looks upward toward heaven, or at least a better future. She is the hope of 2021: hope of a vaccine, of a new president, of a new start.
The 3D art installation, titled “Ascension,” is located inside SoHo Lofts, at Las Vegas Boulevard and Hoover Avenue, but it’s viewable from the street. Curated by Laura Henkel, “Ascension” marks a collaboration between two native Las Vegas artists: pop art muralist Derek Douglas (aka SNIPT) and multimedia artist Anthony Castillo (aka ToneCastle).
Each successful in their own right, together they are The Wall Saints. Fans can find their murals throughout the Arts District at Casa Don Juan, shareDowntown apartments and Siegel Suites, and also at Area15.
The two met when they were pitted against each other at a First Friday art battle about a year and a half ago. Castillo says they “clicked” and began collaborating. “The mediums that I’m not good at, he’s good at,” Castillo says. “So between the two of us, we pretty much can do anything.”
Castillo specializes in spray painting, airbrushing, graffiti and tattoo-style art. Douglas does collaging, wheatpaste installations and mashups focusing on pop-culture icons. “We just kind of interweave each other’s styles,” Douglas says. “We both tend to go toward the pop art realm of things—known figures, bright colors, a lot of layers. … It’s very complementary, the two styles here.”
Teamwork helps both artists balance full schedules. Douglas also co-owns the Arts District’s Golden Fog Coffee with his wife, Juliet. And Castillo has a new infant daughter. “We were both getting pretty busy with murals. So we just kind of combined our forces to be as efficient as possible,” Douglas says.
As with many things these days, The Wall Saints’ current focus was born out of pandemic necessity. The original plan was for studio art. The duo debuted an Arts Factory studio gallery at the March 2020 First Friday event. “A few days later, we went into lockdown,” Douglas says. “Once that happened, we pretty much had to jump into the mural project … and we’ve been going strong ever since.”
Keep your eyes peeled for their next Arts District mural, which should appear next month. The details can’t yet be made public, but it’s their biggest yet, at 63,000 square feet.
How they built it
“Ascension” isn’t just a piece of art. It’s a complex structure that creates a sort of optical illusion. Castillo calls The Wall Saints’ first attempt at the 3D sculptural process “pretty difficult.” Douglas says there was a ton of “trial and error.”
The two began with the basic concept, making a digital mock-up. They collected old boxes. To continue the theme of rebirth, they wanted to reuse and repurpose their materials. “Just about everything on there, other than the paint, is recycled,” Castillo says.
They experimented with different styles, realizing that a simpler look worked best on the multiple surfaces. So they painted all the boxes flat white and stacked them around a wooden support structure, creating an ad hoc canvas. Since the stacked boxes would create odd shadows, they had to carefully place lighting.
From there they finalized the design on a computer and began painting. Their plan is for the piece to continue evolving over the year. “We still have ideas,” Castillo says.
