Exploring The Bywater In New Orleans

"Ideas Are Sexy Too" it says, a photo of a body-builder with the head of Albert Einstein, on a house in the Bywater district of New Orleans. It's amazing to me how the art in their neighborhood is shown on the outside of homes. Most houses in most neighborhoods in most cities in America have the art, the photography, the creative details on the inside of the house. Yet, in the Bywater, a working class neighborhood in between the Marigny and before the bridge to the Lower Ninth Ward, the art is on the outside.

I've asked around, but I haven't figured out why that is. It definitely shows the personality of the person living inside, but is it more than this? Is about a cultural or historical reference I don't know about? The marks from Hurricane Katrina I do know are a source of pride (or in the case of brick homes a way of life - and almost impossible to remove).

For the photos is it a long and windy story told through the time? Or is it just because the outside of the house is falling apart and putting art up is a good way to distract the eye from the falling paint chips? Regardless of what it is, I'm finding myself drawn to these examples of "everyday art" and the street art that follows.