Tacoma, Wash. — It happens around sunset one random evening a month. A treasure hunt in the streets of Tacoma.
“I think it’s just a cool thing you only find here,” said Joe Vasiliauskas.”Free art basically on telephone poles".
There are crowds gathering on a 6th Avenue sidewalk and people screaming with joy.
The cause of all this commotion: limited edition, hand crafted, letterpress posters designed by a guerilla art project, created by graphic designer Lance Kagey and writer Tom Llewellyn. They call themselves Beautiful Angle.
“I think we had the original idea that we would be the Banksys of Tacoma, the shepherd fairies that would go out in the dark of night,” Llewellyn said. “It just kind of evolved into its own thing.”
For over 15 years, Llewelyn and Kagey have been meeting in a basement to churn out art on a vintage press.
“You lock it up into a press, crank it through, with ink and paper and you end up with a really cool looking poster,” Kagey said.
Posters about... anything.
“I think one of the things that I love about this art is that there isn’t a big agenda,” Kagey said.
“Sometimes they go deep, and they go spiritual, sometimes they're about drinking beer or a plate of spaghetti,” Llewellyn said.
The latest poster is the last of a series called “See You Later Alligator,” and for every fan excited to get a poster, there's one reading between the lines.
“Is this really the last one?” a fan asked.
“Is that what people are saying?” Kagey asked .
“Uh, yeah!”
The artists tell us they want to continue handing out free posters for five more years.
Word spreads quickly that this is a Beautiful Angle night. A poster goes up on a telephone pole and 30 seconds later Mark Morrison is taking it down.
“Part of the reason I moved to Tacoma and not Seattle is because the art scene is better here,” Morrison said.
As darkness spreads, the Beautiful Angle duo shake their fans and post their art in some pretty random places.
To be found whenever by whomever.
“Tacoma has this great gift to artists,” Llewelyn said. “It's longing for someone to love it, and this project is blatantly trying to love the city.”
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email.
