You're walking down Franklin Avenue in downtown Waco. Past the running store, toward the food hall, thinking about lunch. And then—this. A young man in a 19th-century coat, spray-painted on the brick in layers so fine you stop mid-step.
That's Chopin. The composer. And the hand that put him there belongs to one of the most important street artists who ever lived.
Not Banksy. Better. The man Banksy learned from.
The man Banksy learned from
Blek le Rat is the working name of Xavier Prou, a Parisian street artist born in 1951. In 1981 he started spray-painting stenciled rats across Paris — rats because the city teems with them, and because rat is an anagram of art. That was years before anyone had heard of Banksy. Today he's widely called the father of stencil graffiti — the pioneer of the entire art form.
Don't take our word for it. Take Banksy's. In a 2008 interview, he admitted that every time he thinks he's painted something original, he finds out Blek le Rat "has done it as well, only 20 years earlier."
An original by that man is on a running-store wall in Waco, Texas. Six of them went up, actually. Here's how.
A juice bar, a documentary, and a very long shot
Summer Shine, founder of Waco's Luna Juice Bar, watched the 2017 documentary Saving Banksy and did the most Waco thing imaginable: she reached out to its producer. That was Brian Greif, a San Francisco art collector who had rescued a genuine Banksy rat from a doomed wall on Haight Street.
It worked. First, Greif lent Waco his rescued Banksy — the Haight Street Rat spent September 2018 on display at Cultivate 7twelve on Austin Avenue. Then he came back with something better than a saved painting. He brought the pioneer himself.
In November 2018, with grant support from Creative Waco's Arts Match Program, Blek le Rat spray-painted six original stencils across downtown — and reportedly called them a gift to the city. He later told Brooklyn Street Art why he'd come: street art, he said, belonged on the walls of real cities — not just the world's capitals — in places where people had never seen the movement up close.
Read that again. Waco street art wasn't a consolation prize. It was the whole point.
Six stencils, one honest treasure hunt
Creative Waco announced the finished set at Thanksgiving 2018 and framed it exactly right: a Waco treasure hunt. Here's the full list — with an honest status report.
Young Chopin — Waco Running Company, 700 Franklin Ave. Don't circle the block looking for it: the stencil is on the side wall facing Union Hall. The Waco Public Art Map jokes that the composer looks like he's just come back from a run and worked up an appetite.
In Honor of Kurt Kaiser — Apex Coffee Roasters, 324 S 6th St. Stand at this one a little longer. Kurt Kaiser was a Waco composer — the writer of the beloved gospel song "Pass It On" — and he passed away in Waco on November 12, 2018, as Blek le Rat's visit was unfolding. The tribute wasn't planned months ahead. It happened in real time: a French street-art pioneer pausing to honor a Waco songwriter whose city was still mourning him.
Selfie Rat — Cultivate 7twelve, 712 Austin Ave. Blek's signature rat, taking a selfie, hiding in the basement. This one is indoors — ask at the front desk during gallery hours, and check that they're open before you make the trip.
And the other three? This is where the hunt gets interesting. Per the Wacoan's account of the visit, a violinist — modeled on Blek's own son — went up at Dichotomy Coffee & Spirits (508 Austin Ave), a young Picasso on the Art Center of Waco's then-unfinished building (701 S 8th St), and Victor Hugo at Brotherwell Brewing (400 E Bridge St). But as of this writing, the official art map lists only three of the six. The other three have quietly dropped off, and we can't confirm they survived.
Don't let that sting too much. Ephemerality is street art's entire ethos — Blek has watched his own work weather off Paris walls since 1981. It just makes the confirmed three feel urgent, and the missing three feel like Waco's open mystery. If you spot Victor Hugo still keeping watch at the brewery, tell us. We'll update this post.
Start on Franklin Avenue
The confirmed trio is an easy fifteen-minute add-on to any downtown wander — Chopin and Selfie Rat sit about a tenth of a mile apart, with Apex a short stroll away. On our Waco Walls trail, Chopin is Stop 11 — we call it The Rat Before Banksy — with The Six-Story Gift around the corner and Starry Night, Sunny Side Up a block over.
And it's all free. Waco stencil art from the father of the form, on walls you can walk to, any day you like. When you've found the rat, don't stop — the sculpture trail to the zoo has 22 more stops and a story of its own. Bring water, bring your camera, and go stand where a Paris legend once stood with a spray can — looking at a Waco wall, seeing a gallery.