A North Bay street artist, who goes by the name The Velvet Bandit, creates “harmless street art” that she plasters—using wheat paste—on signs and walls across the Bay Area. Much like Banksy, she has chosen to be anonymous, sharing only a few stories about herself online; for some context, she is a mom and lives somewhere in the North Bay.
Bandit’s art is visually pleasing from a distance, and when you’re close up there is usually a political or social statement incorporated into the cartoon artwork.
When I spoke to the anonymous artist earlier this month, she said she started at the beginning of the pandemic with “mostly tongue-in-cheek COVID stuff or positive messages,” but she was inspired to get political after the video of George Floyd came out, along with watching as masks and the virus itself became politicized by the then-president Trump.
Bandit says that reception for her unauthorized street art has been mixed; some love it and encourage her on social media, while others have spray-painted over her stickers and have even gone so far as to leave a note saying, This is public property. It is not for you to express your political beliefs next to a sticker of Ruth Bader Ginsburg wearing a crown and a mask that says “All Rise.”
Faceless people online have even left comments, telling saying her work is ugly, but even more praise her for using her voice to speak up about social issues.
She utilizes various social media platforms to share her art, and recently went viral on TikTok with a video showcasing a frame of Abraham Lincoln wearing a mask, captioned “tax the rich.”
Her controversial video has over 350,000 views and 1,000 comments, mainly thanks to one commenter who claimed that taxing the rich is why the economy is failing, and many others arguing back saying trickle-down economics has destroyed this nation. Others commented that good ol’ Abe Lincoln really wasn’t the savior that he has been made out to be
(NPR has more: Lincoln & Race: The Great Emancipator didn’t advocate racial equality. But was he a racist?).
Others said that they were from Sausalito and, as well, though the location was perfect for art that parodies the idea that Marin County’s residents are “performing” as though they want to help others, as long as they don’t have to share a neighborhood with those who can’t afford it.
(The longest and more public example of this is the ongoing fight to build affordable housing near Skywalker Ranch — from CNBC: George Lucas strikes back…with affordable housing. Also, check out this opinion piece from the Marin Independent Journal: Affordable housing is great unless it’s in your hood.)
Marin County has been the butt of jokes about their seemingly NIMOB (Not In My Own Backyard) attitude, which is exactly why The Velvet Bandit chose the town of Sausalito. According to her, she chose the Bay Area town as a place to plaster this specific piece of art because “that’s where all the rich fuckers are.” (Since the art went up, there was a swastika spray-painted on top of it and it has since been taken down).
It seems that one surefire way to go viral on any social media platform is to share something controversial. I always suggest this as an engagement hack for Instagram Marketing— but my version of controversy is asking if people like cilantro, and stepping back to let commenters argue their case…
(The ostensibly correct answer is it tastes like soap when raw, but is delicious when made into chimichurri.)
Going viral on any social media platform is a surreal feeling to watch as hundreds of likes, and comments come in on your phone. It was her daughter who messaged her saying “mom you are famous.” She spent the next day answering comments and making sure her website thevelvetbandit.com/shop was up-to-date with the image that went viral.
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She plans to continue plastering walls and signs across the bay (mostly in the North Bay) to make a statement, selling stickers and artwork online and making videos to see if she can hit a nerve as she did with the triple threat of controversy: Abraham Lincoln, a mask, and the “Tax the Rich” sentiment.
Watch and snicker along with The Velvet Bandit’s antics on Instagram or TikTok: instagram.com/thevelvetbandit/ and tiktok.com/@thevelvetbandit.
