Artist D*Face brings colorful intrigue to his mural at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas

There’s something unsettling happening at the Plaza hotel in downtown Las Vegas.

A frightened young woman. A menacing skeletal hand. A slowly opening door.

Looking down onto the pool deck of the Plaza, at Main Street and the Fremont Street Experience, it’s a scenario that’d be familiar to any fan of old horror comics or aficionado of pop art, and it’s the latest creation of noted English multimedia artist D*Face.

D*Face — real name Dean Stockton — completed the mural just more than a week ago. It joins a separate mural created earlier this year by street artist Shepard Fairey. Both artists have designed other works for the downtown entertainment district, and their Plaza pieces are the result of a cooperative effort by the hotel, the Life is Beautiful festival and Justkids, the festival’s arts curator.

Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel said the murals are part of the hotel’s art initiatives to contribute to a visually exciting downtown.

“Art is one of the key drivers in defining a city and revitalizing a city,” he said.

Fans can view four other murals by Stockton in downtown Las Vegas created on behalf of Life is Beautiful, but the artist said the Plaza mural is the tallest and widest he has accomplished. It required a different technique from most of the pieces he has done.

“You have to grid out the wall because you can’t step back and freestyle it,” he said. “You can’t project it or outline it.”

In addition, the wall takes the form of discrete sections rather than one flat panel. So, Stockton said he attempted to work with the architecture, placing the figure of the woman and the bony hand on separate panels in a precise way that would interact well with sun and shadow.

Another challenge: “I’m scared of heights,” Stockton said with a laugh, adding,

“I wasn’t so scared of the heights. I’m scared of falling.”

The project’s logistics did prompt “a lot of discussion in the studio (about) who wanted to come.”

Ultimately, he said, “I’m just a selfish artist. I was, like, ‘No, we are gonna do it.’ You always challenge yourself as an artist, and I guess pushing myself is the reason we agreed.”

Much of Stockton’s work is inspired by pop art and comic imagery.

“As a kid I wasn’t mad on comics, particularly,” he said. “I was just more into that style of illustration.

“I really like simple graphics. I like the image that’s portrayed to be as simple as possible and as clean as possible.”

His image on the Plaza is reminiscent of old horror or suspense comics. Unlike some of his other pieces, it contains no caption or words, encouraging the viewer to decipher the subtext of the scene as he or she wishes.

“That’s why I love public art,” he said.

“When people ask me, ‘What does it mean?’ I’m not going to say. It’s always better when they come up with their own story.”

Stockton noted that, in conceiving pieces, he takes into account where they will be seen. For example, his Plaza mural meshes well with Las Vegas in that it’s bold, flashy and “in your face.”

“Las Vegas is a very particular place,” he said. “It’s very unusual in every way.”