Here’s the tease: David Choe was actually offered a handsome sum of $60,000 to paint murals all up and around Facebooks HQ offices. He and everyone else though Facebook was a joke, but being a gambling man — he won his first million in Vegas — Choe took the stocks. Facebook’s $5 billion IPO caused it to skyrocket recently. He hasn’t held on to all of it, but “I’m doing ok,” he says.

Here’s the audio.

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Of course, we’re back to the matters of aesthetics: If you want your work to survive, make sure it doesn’t look like an ad (the original excuse for destroying murals). They’re still figuring out the proper procedures in classifying all that.

California-based graffiti artist SABER, who tagged the sky to protest the current laws, tells the LA Times: “They buff beautiful pieces, harass property owners and threaten us like we are in street gangs.” While the new (yet unwritten) law might “legalize the city’s best-known works and some more recent pieces,” the key words here are “some,” so put your time and talent into it at your own risk.

SABER, a California-based graffiti artist, dispatched skywriting planes over Downtown Los Angeles earlier today to challenge the city’s controversial moratorium on murals. New laws that were meant to curb the proliferation of advertisements and signage, have instead been used by officials to basically make it illegal for artists to paint large scale works, specifically if they involve spray paint and regardless if they have the owner’s permission.

The aircraft “put up” his name along with other prominent writers, supporters, and words of protest with the hope that it will spread awareness about the ordinance that is a direct threat to common sense, but more importantly, free speech! (Photo: @SaberAWR) UPDATE: More photos here.

This weekend, I stopped by Houston Street and briefly spoke to Kenny Scharf while he took a quick break from painting his mural, which wasn’t sketched out beforehand. “I started with the red nose, and then just started filling in the spaces,” he said. The whole piece should be finished by no later than Tuesday and when asked if he thought graffiti writers would vandalize it, Scharf didn’t sound too worried.

“No, I’m not Shepard Fairey. Not to knock him or anything, but I’m not putting up wallpaper made safely in a studio.” In the event that someone does tag it, the art world veteran said he would fix it, assuming he’s around as he’ll be traveling over the next few months. “If I’m in town, sure. But I’m not going to fly out special.” (Photo: ANIMALNewYork)

RCN cable in the East Village doesn’t care about your public art nostalgia, it’s their building and if they want to paint over a mural of President Obama by Chico they can. And so they did. Although, their spokesman characterized the art a little bit differently, telling DNAinfo: “The bottom line is the building had illegal graffiti on it and we cleaned it up — period.”

With the exception of his tag which is still visible, the entire wall has been freshly painted, making it more of an open invitation to vandals than even a Chico piece. (Top photo: DNAinfo, bottom photo: VanishingNewYork)

There’s always been a thin line between sanctioned “graffiti” and relevancy, but there’s something kinda interesting about the “Subway Art Project.” A spray painting art collective has been putting up murals around NYC, with permission, that pay homage to the train writers of yesteryear reports the New York Times. The above “Joan of Arc” piece is a recreation of SEEN’s famous “Hand of Doom” masterpiece (see below).

Remarkably, the group prefers to remain anonymous…for now, and that has nothing to do with the NYPD. Unlike the driving force that motivates most vandals, they’re not doing it for the ego. Nope, they’re doing it for the money.

Relax, guys. Most passengers versed enough in Russian lit are used to depression.

Artist Jay Shells swung by Chelsea last night and forwarded over some photos highlighting more of Futura’s contribution to the massive Os Gêmeos mural at P.S. 11. Stay tuned.