DOWNEY — A mural of a young girl cutting her hair stands tall on the outside wall of a hair salon on 2nd Street. Her yellow and black paint chips and frays; the oranges decorating her skirt so sun-faded they are hardly visible anymore.

It’s one of only two pieces left in Downey by the street artist known as Bumblebee.

He looks up at her, gazing reminiscently.

“We did this one twice,” he says. “The first time we put her up, she was crooked.”

It’s been 18 years since Bumblebee began putting up his artwork around the walls and businesses of Downey, 16 years under his artist name.

Though not nearly as anonymous as he once was, Bumblebee tries to keep the focus on his art and off of himself.

“I feel like my name’s not important; I’d just like to keep it all about the work,” said Bumblebee. “You know, once you bring race into it, or just your name, I feel like people judge you, and I just like to keep it about the brand and the artwork itself.”

His art has been called “whimsical” and “playful,” and has drawn comparisons to Banksy and Shepard Fairey.

“If you want to define the style, I would say it’s very simple. It’s very simple colors,” said Bumblebee

Bumblebee’s art is influenced by his love of childhood and nostalgia.

“I grew up here in Downey, and I had a great childhood,” said Bumblebee. “I wanted to celebrate that.”

“I started doing, just like making stickers and posters, and putting them up at night and stuff like that with my friends,” said Bumblebee. “I started to get noticed, and the stuff I was doing wasn’t really that good, it was just dumb stuff that you do with your friends.”

Bumblebee established himself at a time when street art was widely frowned upon, at one time putting up a new piece as often as once a week for six months.

“It was looked at as graffiti, nobody really knew what to define it as,” he said. As such, many of his pieces were removed quickly, at times within the hour. Regardless, his voice grew.

Bumblebee made the decision to subtly forgo his anonymity around 2018. He still maintains some of his secrecy because “it’s fun.”

“I don’t know if it was just a conscious decision, or if it just kind of happened that I realized I don’t do any more ‘illegal’ artwork anymore, I don’t need to be hiding so much.”

Bumblebee has since moved to Los Angeles. He remains active, having recently been tapped to put murals up on several schools. Last year, he also returned to Downey to erect the “Today Be Amazing …Brave … Strong … Be You” mural at the corner of Downey Avenue and 4th Street; a collaboration made in honor of an 8-year-old girl who succumbed to cancer in 2018.

“Painting outside is one of the most fun experiences you will have in your life,” said Bumblebee. “I look forward to every job that I get. It’s 100 thousand million times percent better than working inside in an office, which I did once for six months and I got fired. It’s just the greatest thing. You get to be outside. People come up to me everyday and say what a great job I’m doing; I don’t think people do that in any other job…I actually love the attention, and I love painting cool stuff. It’s a lot of fun.”

For the muralist known as Bumblebee, it's still about the art