Kobra hits LA Brea's graffiti mural wall

Mount Rushmore got the Brazilian Kobra treatment this weekend in Los Angeles.

You may have seen this Sao Paolo-based artist's harlequin patterns and rainbow colors popping up across the web. He seems to be going global with his photo-realistic mirages.

Paint by numbers  His approach is very scientific, as he marks out geometric patterns on his sketch. Then he recreates it in a large scale by marking out his numerical grid and painstakenly painting each cell, in a seemingly random order, with an airbrush. Refilling from paints mixed in Coke bottles as he goes.

"My work nowadays is based on the use of old images of the cities I am painting. I visit museums, check the books and from there I come up with some images from the 20s or the 30s that show the architecture of the city. The idea of the murals is to recreate a city that no longer exists, do people who didn't live in that time can see it and those who did live back then can have a moment of memory or nostalgia." Eduardo Kobra interview, Artmiami.tv

Tools of the trade  His toolkit includes a hydraulic platform tower, a couple of ladders, an air compressor, an airbrush, some aerosol cans, brushes and loads of time. Of course he doesn't paint alone, that's why his biz card says Studio Kobra. Kobra's crew said they are in town till the beginning of July. Hopefully Kobra paints some more murals in LA.

Here's the ArtMiami.tv video interview *with subtitles*