Art Wars Rage in Avondale

Between the hours that patrons and then staff left the bars and the pre-dawn shift of delivery workers began rumbling through their rounds, the infamous English graffiti artist known at Banksy managed to go completely unnoticed as he tagged the brick wall of Avondale’s Cancer Society Thrift Store.
His signature, stark style depicted a bedraggled man, pockets turned out and missing a shoe, scratching his head and staring down at a parking space just below the posted sign “Parking for Thrift Store Patrons Only.”
The public barely had time to take in the work, however, as the very next day the homeless man was joined by the dark, lurching form of a silverback gorilla holding a sign that read, “With talent gone, will there be hope for true artists?”
The war between two giants of the pseudonymous graffiti art world had begun, and West Ashley was their chosen canvas.
The soon infamous thrift store painting was quickly joined by a piece on the side of Gene’s Haufbrau of a sullen, drunken man in a scruffy gorilla suit, the head of the costume discarded on the ground as the figure tossed back a dribbling mug of beer. A spray paint can was peeking out of the gorilla-man’s hands and on the wall, a crudely drawn stick figure could be seen with the word “genius!” awkwardly written under it.
This was soon followed by a Banksy-like figure in hoodie and jeans peering in the window of the Mello Mushroom with a thought bubble reading “So that’s what art is…”
Behind the West Of office, on the back of the wall facing Alicia Alley was a painting of a man throwing a bouquet of flowers right in the face of one of Ishmael’s signature gorilla. With the words “guerilla warfare ain’t just for gorillas anymore.”