Art

Although the pilgrimage route along Crenshaw Blvd. was short—0.8 miles, to be exact, it was rich in meaning.

Yesterday, KCET announced a new draft ordinane that would finally clarify the legal status of murals painted on private property.  In an odd twist, the capital of the street art movement classifies murals as "outdoor advertising" and bans them in all but the most special cases.  This leads to odd stories such as the poor Valley Village homeowner who was fined by the city for encouraging students to decorate the fence in front of her house as violating advertising codes or other building owners being fined for allowing vandals to graffiti their property.

"Out the Window" is back on the bus.  Until the end of November, Transit TV is donating two minutes of every hour to Freewaves' Out the Window series featuring local film makers and artists short videos about what they love about Los Angeles.

Last month, tragedy struck during the monthly Art Walk in Downtown Los Angeles when a dangerous driver jumped a curb, crashed into a parking meter and killed a seven week old infant.  The tragedy shocked not just the Downtown and Art Walk communities, but the entire city.  Advocates pointed out that when you have a situation where vehicular traffic is mixed with thirty thousand pedestrians in such a short space as the core of Art Walk, between 3rd and 7th on Spring Street.

Back in February, we wrote about the battle to save hundreds of stone sculptures constructed by John Nielsen along the lower part of Ballona Creek in the Marina area. Yesterday, a reader asked what happened to the statues, so I wrote to Bobbi Gold of Ballona Creek Renaissance to see what happened. She writes:

One of the quiet debates that I hear in Los Angeles is whether or not our city is ugly.  Some argue that the design of our streets has taken the natural beauty of Los Angeles and made it ugly.  While there is some truth in this, I find there are so many beautiful streets and communities to more and balance out some of the ugliness in other areas.

Valley Village resident Barbara Black had an idea on how to repaint her fence, give back to her community, and give some school students a project to work on.  Black, working with the principal at North Hollywood High School, found 10 high school students interested in creating a "graffiti art" mural on her 90 foot fence.  When the work was nearly complete, she received a notice from the city that her mural was violating a city ordinance on advertising, ordered to pay a $336 fine and ordered to white wash the fence.

Along the lower part of Ballona Creek in the Marina area, of the Ballona Creek Bike path rest a small series of sculptures created by local artist John Nielsen. While many people enjoy these statues, the County Engineer, Gregory Sarpy has ordered their destruction.  You've heard the expression the "squeeky wheel gets the grease?"  This is a great example of that old saying.  One person has been calling the engineers office daily to complain of the statues and he's apparently getting his way.  The stated concern is that the rock art is interfering with bird nesting.  I'm not sure what birds are trying to nest in that superexposed area, which is flooded during storms and just inches from the bikepath, but maybe the county knows something I don't.