April 4, 2006
LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles has always been a playground for entrepreneurs, and often they find their inspiration in the environment itself. Now comes an innovative artist who takes his cue, and his artistry, from the sidewalk. NBC4's Kelly Mack profiles a stargazer who truly does his best work at ground level.

(Following is a verbatim script from the on-air report.)

KELLY MACK: Shots of Paul Price working on a Walk of Fame star rubbing—though we don't see the rubbing itself.
PAUL PRICE, ARTIST: Rubbings have been around since the Ming dynasty. They'd do all kinds of things of that sort.

MACK: Paul Price is a former rock-band star who turned street artist—literally street artist.
PRICE: I started doing street designs and manhole covers. I started doing the rubbings.

MACK: Now he and his unique artwork have graduated to the the most famous sidewalk in Hollywood.
PRICE: I ended up going down the Walk of Fame and one day I'm like, well, let me just try one of the stars so I did a rubbing of a complete Marilyn Monroe star.

MACK: A rubbing is a color impression of whatever is underneath. Anyone can do it. But Paul wanted to make this gallery his own.
PRICE: I said, how do I protect this idea?

MACK: The solution wasn't difficult. He simply went to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and through a licensing agency obtained exclusive rights to produce and market color rubbings of the Walk of Fame Stars.
PRICE: I'm the only person in the world that can do the artwork legally and sell them.

MACK: His bestsellers celebrate James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. He also fabricates stars for Walk of Fame wannabees.
PRICE: Playboy Magazine. I fabricated a bunny in the center.

MACK: The work isn't as easy as it looks.
PRICE: I go down early in the morning when there's not a lot of people around. I use 100 percent cotton drafting velum. Then I use different colors of oil pastels and chalk pastels usually mixed together because they blend really well. You have to take your time. It's a little rough on the back.

MACK: Back in his apartment he laminates each finished work to keep the colors from smudging.
PRICE: I usually sell them unframed anywhere from $125 to $150. I do pay back the Chamber of Commerce a percentage, and it's used to refurbish the stars.

MACK: Some of his buyers are big stars themselves and his artwork can be seen in some of Hollywood's hottest watering holes, like Red Rock where one of his favorites overlooks the cozy upstairs bar.
PRICE: I have rolls and rolls in my closet, probably a thousand stars that I have produced. I haven't sold as many because I've been sort of lax in the marketing aspect of the whole situation.

MACK: Friends say he could make a mint with better marketing. In any case, one thing's for sure: he's never going to run out of material.
PRICE: There are over 2,000 stars on the Walk of Fame and they get two or so a month. I can use all of them.