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Photos by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n The experimental music made it almost too loud to hear the young artist, who\u2019d been standing sheepishly next to his wall, but he yelled into my ear nonetheless in an effort to explain the meaning behind one of his pieces. An image of four teeth, only one of them white, floating above a hand, didn\u2019t mean much, he’d said with a shrug, but it had to do with the phrase \u201csweet tooth,\u201d a common trait he was apparently hard-wired without.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve never liked sweets,\u201d I remember him having to shout.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I love that piece,\u201d I shouted back. \u201cTeeth are interesting… especially if you think of them as the only bones situated outside of our bodies, and the only bones we, most of the time, willingly expose to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n This conversation had come nearly an hour after our group of four had wandered into Joe Jost\u2019s for pickled eggs, pastrami sandwiches and schooners of brews from Stone Brewery, where one of the bartenders brought out a styrofoam to-go box, opening the lid to reveal two slices of carrot cake sized for a glutton. The bartender\u2019s reason for giving it up for free: \u201cI don\u2019t like sweets,\u201d he\u2019d said with a shrug.<\/p>\n The artist, who I later discovered was graphic designer Rafael Ramirez, whose work you can see more of here<\/a>, was showing as part of the exhibition Scraps and Trash: The Side Effects of Art<\/em>, a years-in-the-making passion project curated and organized by local artist Shane Sun<\/a> and held at From the Moon<\/a>\u00a0on East Anaheim Street in the Zaferia District.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/small><\/p>\n The show featured artists Bri Joy<\/a>, Eric Zendejas<\/a>, Hannah Griffith<\/a>, Ian DeLucca<\/a>, Lil Jet<\/a>, Nelson Magdaleno<\/a>, NYX<\/a>,\u00a0Riddick Nuferro<\/a> and Sundraws<\/a>\u00a0(Shane Sun) as well as live music by\u00a0Bad Joy<\/a>, Pauline Lay<\/a>, I Woke Up You Were Half\/, Chef Vibes and most notably, The Vespertines<\/a>\u00a0where lead singer Vanessa Acosta wailed on both the mic and the trumpet.<\/p>\n \u201cSo what\u2019d you do today,\u201d I asked, speaking from the passenger seat of my new friend Serena’s Subaru earlier that evening. A transplant from Washington who I\u2019d met at a POW! WOW! Long Beach<\/em> press event, she was one of the reasons I and two of my coworkers decided to go out on this particular Saturday night. She told me she\u2019d started at The Center at Kashink\u2019s mural<\/a> and wandered around town in an attempt to find street art, an activity arguably more interesting to someone new to the city, but also inspiring to someone like myself who was born and raised here.<\/p>\n![\"DSC](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/DSC_0028.JPG\")
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\n\n<\/div>\nEmerging Long Beach Artist Shane Sun Abides by Nothing But Nature<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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