I learned about the talented artist DNZUK after I stumbled across one of his pieces last month. “Picking Shells” caught my eye after a beach walk one evening.

The style was reminiscent of Banksy (to my untrained eye), which seemed plausible since there is an official Bansky exhibit coming to Tampa at the end of July. What better way to promote a show than to drop a new piece?

After a bit of internet sleuthing I learned that DNZUK was the street artist behind the paint. The little girl garnered a lot of interest and admiration but sadly, FDOT painted over her the following morning (apparently it is policy to remove graffiti from state owned land). How fortunate that I had the chance to see her mere hours after she was painted. Timing is everything!

I posted my photo of the art online but didn’t think anything more of it until a few days later. While driving to work I noticed a rather gory depiction of an alligator on a block wall in an industrial section of town. It caught my attention, so I snapped a photo of it. Imagine my surprise when I zoomed in on the picture and recognized DNZUK’s signature.

That led me to another search where I discovered that he had left a few other pieces around the area. So I set out one afternoon determined to find them all (before they were removed).

The flamingoes and the little girl are my favorites but the mermaid and star win bonus points for best location (on the water and only accessible at low tide).

It will be interesting to see how long these are allowed to stay, since art and rules don’t always mesh…