D.I.Y. Downtown

"I would be a crappy artist if I lived somewhere else," Matt Moore says. "I felt freer to try new things here than I would have if I had been in New York."

Still, naysayers snort about the downtown scene. "Poseurs!" they sneer. "Dilettantes who are more interested in making the scene than making art!" they gripe.

Jason Hill

Little art spaces are everywhere you look.

Alex Kutchins: Cellular Sketch P-2006-13

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But the DIY-ers insist that's not so, that there is a here, here.

"There's a lot going on here. It's just a lot more fragmented than in other places," Beatrice Moore says.

JRC says the critics need to spend more time downtown. "We're not trying to be cool. We're not trying to be anything, we're just doing something we love and think is important," he says. "To say we're being poseurs implies we're trying to be like someplace else. I think downtown [Phoenix] is really developing its own identity."

Ret Lab's Bale believes downtown Phoenix will shake off its dust and explode. It's just a matter of time. "From living in L.A. and watching neighborhoods getting discovered, I know that in five years, people are going to look at downtown Phoenix and go, 'What happened?!'" he says. "Phoenix is a great city. I'm happy to be part of what's happening here."