Back to the Wall : Four-Hour Bus Tour Will Visit Some of L.A.’s 1,500 Murals

Los Angeles. The mural capital of the world.

With more than 1,500 wall paintings gracing its storefronts, alleys and street corners, the designation seems quite deserved.

Look around. Artists in the form of gang members, social activists and master’s degree candidates from Otis Parsons are designing murals on war, peace, ethnicity, celebrities and the Olympics.

These murals are humorous, colorful, playful. They are thoughtful, angry and accusative. Always, they are provocative.

On Sunday, mural-lovers can take a four-hour bus tour throughout Los Angeles’ diverse neighborhoods. Sponsored by Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), the tour will include such works as Botticelli’s masterpiece, “The Birth of Venus.” Located in Venice, this California version on St. Mark’s Hotel (25 Windward Ave.) was painted by local artist Cronk, whose Venus wears gym shorts and roller skates.

The tour also features a wall of the La Jolla Hotel in Skid Row, which has been transformed into a map for the homeless. “The Street Speaks” (721 E. 6th St. at Stanford Avenue) directs displaced persons to food, shelter and government assistance. Beside it, a sign asks, “Could You Live On $228 a Month?”

“Our multicultural communities are terribly underserved by the arts,” says Judith Baca, SPARC’s founder and artistic director and a muralist for 20 years.

“The people in these communities are not likely to be museum and gallery attendees. We bring our murals to where they live and work,” says Baca, who with 215 schoolchildren painted the world’s longest mural, “The Great Wall of L.A.” It stretches 2,435 feet along the Los Angeles River in San Fernando Valley and depicts the ethnic history of California from ancient times to the 1950s.

The late Tony Yoshida’s “Flight to the Angel” (470 E. 3rd St.) makes use of children another way by picturing Eastern and Western children floating arm-in-arm across a dreamscape sea.

Unlike museum art, murals brave rain, blistering sun, smog, graffiti and accidental whitewashing. They crumble when their buildings are gutted.

Some, like Willie Herron’s “Quetzalcoatl” (Carmelita Avenue and City Terrace Drive) and Kent Twitchell’s “Freeway Lady” (Hollywood Freeway near Alvarado Street exit) have become obscured by trash bins and newly built hotels. Few remain standing 10 years after their creation.

Each neighborhood has its own visual language, style and iconography.

Chicano muralists use pre-Columbian images and popular cultural motifs to convey their messages. Many, such as Yreina Cervantez, depict important historical figures to foster community pride. Her “La Ofrenda,” or the Offering (Toluca Street under First Street bridge), memorializes Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union.

“She was one of the first strong role models we Chicanas and Latinas had,” she says. “She defied stereotypes and remained a positive force in our community.”

Other Chicano muralists use barrio walls to show their pain.

When Willie Herron’s 15-year-old brother was stabbed by gang members, he marked the spot with an angry mural. “The Wall That Cracked Open” (Carmelita Avenue and City Terrace Drive) shows two brothers, bloodied with their fists clenched. Between them is a tortured face “representing the disease that barrio youths are spreading with their violence,” he says.

Most Los Angeles muralists are influenced by the works of Los Tres Grandes (Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros), Mexico’s best-known muralists. They used cubistic and expressionistic renderings to illustrate social injustices in Mexico.

African-American muralists, too, have found inspiration in their roots--African art. They draw upon its iconography to convey ideas and pictures.

In African-American neighborhoods, community leaders are celebrated with murals. In Watts, for example, artist Richard Wyatt painted “Cecil” (1727 E. 107th St.) as a tribute to activist Cecil Fergerson. Artist Roderick Sykes, 45, created “Literacy” (1406 Highland Ave. at Pico Boulevard) as a tribute to hope. “I wanted to show kids in gangs, committing crimes, that there are alternatives,” Wyatt says.

In Koreatown, artist Sonia Hahn completed the stylized “Madame Shin Sa-im-Dang,” (1325 S. Western Ave.), to honor the famous poet, writer and founder of the Yi Dynasty. “She was a good mother, homemaker, and spiritual leader for other women,” says Hahn. “These are things we cherish in Asian culture.”

And then there’s Hollywood, where celebrity is king and the predominant mural theme is stardom. Richard Wyatt’s “Hollywood Jazz, 1945-1972” (Capital Records Building, south wall, 1750 Vine St. at Hollywood Boulevard) features musical pioneers Chet Baker, Charlie Parker and Nat King Cole. Alfredo de Batuc’s “Dolores del Rio,” (1700 N. Hudson Ave. at Hollywood Boulevard) depicts the famous actress surrounded by her movie stills.

“Paintings are small and don’t have much energy,” says artist Kent Twitchell. “But a mural is like a cathedral--so powerful. Your head bends back to look up. And you’re humbled by it. It reminds us who we are in the grand scheme of things.”

From 1972 to 1976, Twitchell toiled on “Bride and Groom” (Victor’s Tuxedo Shop, Broadway and Third Street), a seven-story blue-monochrome mural of a bride and groom in love. Each night, “so I wouldn’t have to pay for parking,” Twitchell arrived at 7. He taped two light bulbs to his scaffolding, climbed several stories, then painted in the dark “listening to talk radio”--until 8 a.m.

Twitchell is proof that muralists work under conditions that other artists would find unbearable. They labor for minimal fees, in rain, smog and wind, battling noise and continual interruptions. Muralists paint simply because they love their art.

“Muralists are quite impassioned people,” says Judith Baca. “You have to be willing to hang from a rope or scaffolding, and deal with the elements. But it’s thrilling. Because you impact the landscape and you get direct feedback from people as you paint.”

When Alfredo de Batuc painted Dolores del Rio, “people stopped me and asked ‘why are you doing it in that color?’ or told me ‘the flower doesn’t look too good.’ Sometimes they were right. And as I was painting, (Del Rio) fans stopped by and told me stories. They knew her. Some were even on the set when she filmed.”

Mural art is not an individual vision. It is a cultural exchange, shared by local residents and community youths, who often paint alongside the artist. “Murals allow the public to see, touch and be a part of the process,” says artist Roderick Sykes.

On Sunday the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) will conduct a bus tour of murals throughout the Los Angeles area. The tour leaves from SPARC headquarters, 685 Venice Blvd., Venice. The tour is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $15 per person. Call 822-9560 for reservations.