St. Louis Street Art Diaries: Frostbitten Tags and a Code I Can't Crack

i've been on a weird little mission the past few days, hauling my spray cans and roll of stickers across states to end up in st louis, missouri. the weather here is no joke - i just checked and it's sitting at a crisp -3.44°c, but it feels like a teeth-chattering -10.44°c thanks to that damp mississippi wind that cuts right through your jacket. the pressure's sitting at 1019 hpa, humidity 61%, which is basically the perfect recipe for frozen spray tips. i've never had to warm my caps over a lighter before, but here we are.

i pulled up near the coordinates 38.7954, -90.5157 - which is basically in the middle of some industrial wasteland on the edge of st charles county. there's a map below so you can see exactly the grid i've been wandering.

the whole vibe is post-industrial decay meets stubborn revival. old brick warehouses with half-collapsed roofs, train tracks rusted into the earth, and then suddenly a neon-lit brewery that serves craft ipas to the hipster crowd. it's a weird mashup.

as a street artist, i'm always scanning for the perfect spot: a wall with good light for a piece, a back alley that's not too lit but not totally dark either, a place where security maybe doesn't care. st louis has its share of legal walls, but the real treasure is in the unofficial ones. i heard from a local bartender that the massive brick facade of the old anheuser-busch power house (you know, that giant brick building by the river) used to be a playground for writers until the city installed motion sensors. now it's basically a ghost wall after dark. someone told me that if you go around 3am, you might still catch a glow from hidden led tags inside the broken windows.

i've also been chasing rumors about these two numbers: 4406831 and 1840009719. they keep popping up in the most random places - sprayed in tiny stencil near the metro platforms, scratched into the concrete of a parking garage, even handwritten on a piece of masking tape stuck to a stop sign. no idea if it's a crew tag, a code for a meet-up, or just some kid's weird obsession. i've seen other artists mention it on forums; apparently it's a thing in st louis. i checked a local graffiti board (link) and some users were debating whether it's a date (4/4/06831? that's not a date) or maybe longitude/latitude, but the numbers don't add up. i'm obsessed.

the cold has been a real factor. i've got my fingers numb half the time, but the cold also means less foot traffic, which is good for staying under the radar. i've been layering like crazy: two thermals, a hoodie, a thick coat, and my balaclava. i look like a ninja with a spray can. the humidity at 61% makes the paint dry slower, which actually helps with blending if you're quick. the wind, though, is a nightmare - you gotta work fast before your lines get wobbly.

i've also had some run-ins with the local law. one night i was finishing up a piece under the poplar street bridge when a cruiser rolled by. i hid behind a concrete pillar, heart pounding, but the cops just drove on, probably thinking i was a homeless guy. that's another thing: st louis has a huge homeless population, and sometimes they camp near the same spots artists use. it's a weird coexistence. i've heard that some crews actually give blankets or food to the folks living under the bridges. that's the kind of crew i wanna roll with.

if you get bored of the usual tourist traps, east st louis (illinois) is just a short drive away and it's a whole other world. massive abandoned factories, fewer cops, and walls that haven't seen paint in decades. it's a bit sketchy, but that's where the real freedom is. i heard from a painter who got jumped there that you should never go alone after dark. something about a guy named 'red' who patrols the yards.

for supplies, i stopped by this shop called 'art supply co.' on delmar boulevard. the old guy behind the counter, larry, knows all the local writers. he gave me the lowdown on which caps to use for fine lines in the cold. he's a legend. also, there's a great thrift store on south grand where i scored a pair of stretchy gloves that actually let me work without losing feeling.

i've been documenting everything on my instagram, but i also keep a hand-drawn map of where each piece went. st louis is a city that's fighting to be seen, and the art is a raw scream against the cold. it's messy, it's freezing, and i keep seeing those damn numbers.

someone told me that if you combine the two numbers (4406831 and 1840009719) and subtract something, you get a date - maybe the day a famous writer passed away? i'm still trying to crack it.

anyway, i'm off to find a new wall before the sun rises. if you're out there and you see a ninja-looking kid with a backpack full of cans, wave. maybe we can tag something together.

p.s. check out these pics i shot along the way - some are from my camera, others i found on unsplash that capture the weird vibe of this place.

also, here are some links that came in handy: the street art tour on tripadvisor was actually pretty solid, even if it's mostly legal walls (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60827-d2453095-Reviews-Street_Art_Tour-St_Louis_Missouri.html). larry's shop got a lot of love on yelp (https://www.yelp.com/biz/art-supply-co-st-louis). the stlouis graffiti board is where i first saw those numbers (http://stlouisgraffiti.boards.net). riverfront times did a piece on the scene too (https://www.riverfronttimes.com/arts/st-louis-street-art-scene-12345678).

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