Doug MacCash’s story on the public/graffiti artist Banksy’s New Orleans works is now up at the Times-Picayune Web site and the locations of the pieces are in the paper and on the Web site. Here’s a driving tour to see all of the ones highlighted in the paper and one that isn’t.

1. Cross the Claiborne Ave bridge into the Lower Ninth Ward. Once you cross, look to your left for an abandoned tire store and a green building on Reynes Street. There’s a boy on a life preserver swing on the side of the green building.
2. Take Reynes toward the river to St. Claude, then turn left to Forstall St. Look for an old guy in the rocker on a moldy green-colored building.
3. Take St. Claude toward the Quarter. At the point after St. Roch when the road veers left, there’s a large white wall in front of you with the boy flying the fridge/kite.
4. Continue to Kerlerec and turn left. On the corner is a girl with rain coming from under her umbrella.
5. Go down Kerlerec to a street you can take left back to Elysian Fields. Take E. Fields toward the river, then loop around to Decatur to the lakebound lane and find the looting National Guardsmen on the corner.
6. Go back to Rampart heading toward Canal St. Once you pass Armstrong Park, turn toward Basin Street and follow it lakebound as it becomes Orleans. Turn right on the first street after Armstrong Park, and on the left side of the street on a damaged wall is a girl afraid of rat. You have to get out to see that the rat is partially composed of a damaged spot on the wall.
7. Take the next left to Claiborne, then turn right on Claiborne and go to St. Bernard, where you turn right. Look to the lakebound side of the street once you turn the corner and you’ll see the real life Bart Simpson on the side street. It’s on a one-way the wrong way, so you have to go around the block to get next to it.
8. From there, get back to Claiborne heading toward Canal St. Turn right on Orleans and get on the I-10 West, then get off at the Canal St. exit. The offramp will bring you face to face with homeless Abe Lincoln.
9. From there, take whatever route you like through the CBD and Warehouse District to get St. Charles and Clio. Turn right at Clio and once you pass the Big Top/3 Ring Circus on the left, look right for a painter painting over sunflowers. This one has been defaced with a gray blotch covering what was once a sunflower. The work of Radke? Seems unlikely since he doesn’t tend to leave jobs half-done. The work of Banksy? Possible, but since he has brown patches that simulate roller marks, it seems odd that he’d also do a gray-out job in the Radke style. More likely someone trying to frame Radke, I suspect. Or, maybe that gray patch was already there – the only hint of the sunflower is a flower pot and a small, uncovered petal – and Banksy painted to it.  

[Oct. 2 Note: Today I found a photo of this piece on flickr.com that shows a pre-defaced version. It looks like Banksy grayed out part of one sunflower Radke style, but the second sunflower marked out with a tan paint was done by someone else.]
10. Take a right then a right and head for Tchopitoulas. On Tchop, go to Jackson and turn right. In the second or third block, look at the riverbound side of the street for the side of an abandoned fire house at 512 Jackson. On the river side of the building, a painter is painting over a horrified stick figure. 

Banksy’s Web site shows a few that aren’t included in this tour because no one I know has found them. It also includes a marching band playing in gas masks. That one was on Oretha Castle Haley, but the building’s caretaker painted over it.

When he wrote of coming here to challenge “the Gray Ghost” – Fred Radke’s nickname – that struck me as dramatic and a little silly, but this project demonstrates how largely Radke’s anti-graffiti efforts loom in the consciousness of the underground arts community. A British artist knows of his efforts, and anyone I talked to about the pieces feared that Radke would get to them. In MacCash’s video accompanying his story online, an interviewed subject wouldn’t mention where he was when admiring the girl with the umbrella for fear of giving away its location to Radke. My suspicion is that if these are defaced or disappear, it won’t be at Radke’s hand. They’re more likely to be marked up by those who want to discredit Radke’s efforts, or they’ll be painted over at an owner’s request – though many but not all of the buildings are abandoned – or someone’s going to try to figure out how to preserve the pieces and get them off the walls because Banksy’s art sells. Still, time and exposure means these are impermanent pieces even if Radke never gets to them, so see them while you can.