viewfromaloft

April 2012 Mural Posts

Site of David Alfaro Siqueiros' "America Tropical" at El Pueblo's Olvera Street. Photo by Maria Lopez

 

Bringing Back Calle: The original street name of Broadway in downtown Los Angeles is also the name of an important mural now undergoing restoration by SPARC.

 [Calle de la Eternidad' Mural on Broadway is About Moving Inspiration]

Return of a Rebel: A major step in the long awaited conservation of David Alfaro Siqueiros politically charged mural I April 24

[A Big Lift Toward Protecting Siqueiros' América Tropical Mural]

Key Art: The design concepts are playing out well for the artists participating in LACO's public art project I April 23 

[LACO's 'Play Me' Pianos Play On]

Business Angle: Street art has become big business, with downtown L.A. seemingly determined to be "The Mural Economic Capital Of The World." I April 19

[The Growing Buzz of Street Art Biz]

Hidden History: Newly discovered sketch for a 1974 mural shows the beginning of political idealism of contemporary Chicano art I April 16

[Sketch of Early Chicano Mural Discovered]

Bear Your Soul: Deedee Cheriel's pop-modernist mural is appropriately framed by the Standard Hotel's mod personality riff on 1960s corporate chic I April 12

[Downtown Street Art Exposes The Bear Within]

Opening Number: Public spaces will be filled with music as pianos decorated by local artists are placed throughout Los Angeles I April 9

[Pianos Become Spontaneous Street Art in Public Space]

March 2012 Mural Posts at KCET

 

A List: Riots Still Define LA Culture 20 Years Later

 

 

"Florence and Normandie" courtesy of Jonathan Alcorn I  © Jonathan Alcorn

"#BREAKING: Jury reaches #verdict in #RodneyKing beating trial. Check back for details." Livetweeting the Los Angeles Riots as they happened on this date and time in 1992. [Real Time LA Riots]

"For performing artists in the two decades since the riots there has been a parallel problem: how to wrestle with and portray events that deeply scarred Los Angeles and shook up its self-image as a bastion of multicultural tolerance, events that many Angelenos are too young to remember and others might prefer to forget." 

New and old works are surveyed by LAT Reed Johnson, via South Bend Tribune.

"It was very emotional everywhere I went. So many people wept while they were talking to me. You know, the white juror in Simi Valley, he wept because he thought he was doing the right thing. He was really working hard to, from his point of view, bring a just verdict. And he had no idea that the verdict he brought would lead to what some people called a social explosion."   

Current interview with Playwright Anna Deavere Smith on "Twlight" [Neon Tommy]

"And I was on my way home, and you know, I could hear things going down...on Florence and Normandie.... I was like basically, 'What did they expect to happen?' 

Ice Cube at "Reflects on how the LA Riots changed rap" [The Grio]

Snoop Dog narrates "UPRISING: Hop Hop and the L.A. Riots," a new documentary from VH1 that "focuses not just on the news of that day, but how it affected and directly influenced hip hop as we know it." It premieres May 1 at 9 p.m. VH1

Cultural Milestones of the LA Riots At Which Way LA? [KCRW]

 

OTHER

"The Rodney King beating, like the Watts Riots in 1965 and the Rampart police corruption scandal in 1999, shows that a "relatively simple though serious problem such as police racism" is anything but simple." Riots and Rebellions: Los Angeles Police Reform Time Line 1965-2012 by Robert Garcia  [KCET]

"The dead for whom justice remains elusive include a 15-year-old boy shot as he stood on a corner, a Good Samaritan who tried to douse flames set by a crowd of angry looters, a hard-working immigrant who insisted on making grocery deliveries even as his neighborhood burned, a suburban man shot when he came to check on his store and John Doe No. 80, whose identity may never be known" [Fox News]

L.A. Riots, As A Neighbor Remembers It: [NPR]

Los Angeles Times looks back  [view]

Los Angeles Times front pages [view]

So does L.A. Daily News  [view]

KCRW [view]

If you recall, Lakers were about to tip-off at The Forum. LA sports figures on LA Riots  [ESPN]

Roundup at LA Observed [view]

LA Angelena is extensively tracking media coverage as it comes in with Pinterest [view]

Florence and Normandie by Jonathan Alcorn, who writes "I was assigned to photograph the neighborhood twenty years after the flashpoint of the violence, including the notorious Florence and Normandie intersection where Reginald Denny was seriously beaten. I was excited and also cautious about this assignment." Photo reposted courtesy of Jonathan Alcorn.

Los Angeles Angels of Downtown?

LAT’s Bill Shaikin wrote on how the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim may exercise an escape clause -- and leave an aging stadium. The team is in "position" for a return to Los Angeles, and have poked around downtown:

AEG is the local expert at building and financing sports facilities. Several of the Dodgers bidders spoke with AEG about a possible new ballpark. Magic and Co. did not.  

Arte Moreno apparently did. Moreno, the Angels' owner, and Angels Chairman Dennis Kuhl met this month with AEG President Tim Leiweke, a meeting first reported by the Daily News.  

Neither AEG nor the Angels would discuss the meeting. Moreno was traveling and unavailable to discuss his stadium plans, Angels spokesman Tim Mead said.

<snip>

In 2005, as Moreno fought the city of Anaheim over his addition of Los Angeles to the team name, he spoke of the possibility of moving out of Angel Stadium.

"What kind of stadium will be left in 2016?" Moreno told The Times then. "I really need to make a call four or five years before that."

That would be now.

It’s speculation for now, and time will tell if there will be a real possibilty for a Figueroa Series (110 Series?). Then again, it may be another example of team ownership using Los Angeles as relocation bait.

Homecoming for a name? The Los Angeles Angels entered MLB baseball as a Gene Autry owned franchise in 1961. The name itself dates back to 1892's California League. In 1903, it became the name for LA's Pacific Coast League team (and the orgin of the intersecting L and A logo now used by the Dodgers), as noted in culled local baseball history, including at Wiki here and here.

The Angels, as a PCL team, were purchased by William K. Wrigley, Jr., in 1921, who then built Wrigley Field in Los Angeles at 42nd Place and Avalon Boulevard in 1924-25. When starting his MLB team, Autry purchased the rights to the name from Walter O’ Malley, who owned the PCL Angels at the time.

Downtown Vid Pick: "East Side Locos Taggers"

 

"East Side Locos Taggers" MAD TV

Now that I have been taking a closer look at the different nuances between graff and tagging, this clip is funnier to me. A cholo writes his tag small because the sidewalk has "good foot traffic,"  baffling creative director / gang leader. "The size forces the observer to get more involved with the graffiti," says the artistic vato.

You can spot a Los Angeles river bridge in the background and window reflection -- qualifying it as a Downtown Vid Pick. Frankly, the sketch is so well done, it would have made it anyway.  Hat/Tip to Jay Lopez for reminding me of Mad T.V.'s take on ESL taggers (That's East Side Locos, not English as Second Language.)

Union Station Dreams Revealed at The Source

 EE&K, a Perkins Eastman Company, in association with UNStudio

The first look of conceptual visions for the future of Union Station were presented today, and Metro's The Source are the first to post them.

Listing the new Metro projects about to open or soon begin construction, Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Antonio Villaraigosa said that the transit projects are opportunities to transform how the region looks and functions.

“And with high-speed rail coming down the pipeline, Union Station will truly be a hub not just for the region, but for the state,” said Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Antonio Villaraigosa. “This is about preparing for the future.”

Links will be added here. For a quick look at the other boards, go The Source. [view]

Public Transporation Extra: Expo Line opens to public Saturday [view]

"Fiesta" Closes Broadway Between Temple and 5th on Sunday

 

Fiesta Broadway returns to Downtown on Sunday, April, 29. With it comes road closures around in the Historic Core.

Temporary street closures will be on Broadway between First and Fifth Street beginning Saturday, April 28th at 12 p.m. says the bad download from the website. Note that the map also has Temple with limited access. Streets remain closed until 5 a.m. on Monday, April 30th.

On the website organizers warn on  --  a file that downloads poorly -- that locals must be aware that all parking lots located on Broadway between 1st Street and 5th Street “will not be accessible during the event.”

Fiesta Broadway [view]

Another One From Man One: "The Downtown Artist-At-Large”

The Downtown Artist-At-Large (2012) courtesy Urban Legends.

This portrait of a downtown Los Angeles local -- a 30 year resident of skid row -- is  “giving a face to the invisible, by commemorating him and others in a mural," writes Man One.  "I hope to also lift them up and let them know they are not alone or forgotten.” The piece, titled “The Downtown Artist-At-Large,” is at Winston and Main, one of a number of murals kicking off “Urban Legends” exhibition and auction.

Pieces of Wilshire Grand To Be Sold "As Is" April 26

Need extra towels?

The Wilshire Grand Hotel everything-must-go sale has an inventory that includes 1,000’s of silver serving pieces, 100,000 pieces of bed and bath linens, computer equipment, carpets, drapes, beds, flat screen TV’s . . . well, you get the picture.

You may find something retro (the Wilshire Grand opened as the Hotel Statler in 1952.)  Doors open Thursday, April 26, at 9 a.m. at 7th and Figueroa.

Add from original e-mail. The sale operates  Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. through 6 p.m. Sunday from Noon to 5 p.m. There is a $5 admission fee. The sale is scheduled to run until June.

$2,000,000.00 Hotel Liquidation Sale via VFaL in-box [view]

Twitter [iclsales]

View From a Bike: 4th Street Bridge During CicVIALA

HEADSHOT: During CicVIAla, Will "Wildbell" Campbell attached a camera to his helmet -- or some part of his body -- and came back with some great photos of his ride, including this shot heading into Downtown via the 4th Street Bridge and Arts District. The other 72 photos, including a spill,  are in his flickr steam CicLAvia No. 4 (April 15, 2012) [view]

Before Urban Legends opens April 27, there are murals to be made

A Estria Miyashiro and Shar K Toof street art piece at Continental Art Supply in Reseda, one of 'Urban Legends' kick-off murals.

ADD 4.22 I 4pm:  Monday brings more murals, including Man One painting one up next to his gallery,  Crewest, at Winston and Main. There will be nine other works in strategic locations, according to "Urban Legends" word crew.

“Urban Legends” is preparing for its April 27 opening by having street art murals painted throughout  Los Angeles County, announced organizers. From the international contingent of artists arriving to attend opening weekend, a number will be “creating colorfully spray painted walls to the existing open air museums that are once again starting to increase” in response to the “public outcry to remove the ban on the commission of murals on private property.”

‘Urban Legends’ is uniting traditional muralists, who began beautifying the city through cultural and sociopolitical story telling in the late ‘60’s along with today’s generation of street artists. This global movement and the revival of the muralist rising up again in the city once known as Mural Capital of the World, is as important to today’s society as the pop art movement that began in the 1950’s.
 

In an article written on the business of street art for KCET Departures, Estria Miyashiro, founder of the Estria Foundation, said: "Despite [graffiti] writing being around for over 40 years, artists are only now being recognized and paid for their skills. Galleries, museums and art fairs are jumping on the bandwagon." In that same interview, Miyashiro also stated:

"We are now at a point in time where in most countries, anyone under the age of 28 has never seen a city without the people's voices on its walls. This means for the younger generation, public art has won its hearts, minds and eyes.

"Zero tolerance of (graffitti) writing has clearly failed, and now it is commonplace for city departments to consider and implement pro-art programs as a cheaper, more effective alternative to fighting the war on graffiti writing."

Tickets for Urban Legends’ Public Art Exhibition can purchased at www.publicartlegends.eventbrite.com. It will be held from April 27 to May 26, 2012 at LA Mart Design Center (1933 South Broadway 12th Floor Suite).

News will be also updated here and at VFAL Urban Legends.

Artists schedule to appear at the VIP opening are Alexander D.C.D., Alfredo Libre, Aly Kourouma + dj ndebele, Andrew Hem, Bryan Kieffer + WOIER, CANLOVE, Cern One, Christina Angelina, Codak, Eriberto Oriol + ForbiddenArtLA.com, Estria, Evan Mendelson, Hans Haveron, Itzio Barberena/Kidghe, Jher451, john park, Kent Twitchell, MEAR ONE, NEFF + LEV3L, Pablo Cristi, sand one, Shark Toof, Judith F. Baca, Shark Toof, Van Saro, Vyal One, YOU Davis, and Erin Yoshi