The tour started off at The Fowler Museum where we checked out the Mapping Another L.A: The Chicano Art Movement and it was hosted by Pilar Tompkins Rivas. We saw a bunch of cool stuff there about the murals throughout Los Angeles and some videos. We had seen some the stuff from the artists from a previous exhibit at LACMA but more on that later. No picture taking in the museum so sorry, I have no photos.
We headed to LACMA to see the Mural Remix: Sandra de la Loza which was hosted by the artist herself. She talked to us about her brother who is also an artist, the restoration projects, and we checked out some of the stuff she’d done. There was a giant wall that played a film with artists painting themselves and with the use of a green screen having the art appear on their bodies.
After a lunch break at Calendar’s with Cam and her mom’s friend who was awesome, we all got back on the bus and headed to our next destination. So far we were on schedule and I was mesmerized by this one dude who walked around barefoot. It had rained and the ground was nasty but he didn’t care.
We arrived at Estrada Courts. It was crazy seeing these apartments with huge murals on the sides of them. I’m used to seeing big drawings on walls but never really looking at them as “Art.” I do now. Its weird because I kept seeing stuff on walls afterwards and seeing it differently.
We got to hear and talk to Isabel Rojas-Williams who is the executive director of Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles and artist Ernesto de la Loza. He’s the one who did the murals on these apartments and works to maintain them.
He talked about the different materials he has used and the amount of hard work and time it takes to make sure that these paintings are preserved for the next 100 years. Its sad when they show you pictures of murals that used to be there and the city has painted over them. Thankfully that has not happened here.
We drove a little bit more through the courts and saw some more murals that were painted around the place and its so cool to see this stuff in person. That’s one of the things every artist pointed out. How there’s a big difference between seeing them in books and seeing them in person.
Last was a mural tour with Willie Herron of Asco. They were a group of artists who did video, photography, drawing, painting, and murals throughout Los Angeles for decades. When we arrived he was actually working on a large mural at the top of a building.
The name of his new mural East of No-West looked cool and featured the different artist of the group. He wanted to have it where he lived and not just a painting in a museum which was nice. There was one mural in particular he talked about doing the night his brother was stabbed. He completed it in one night with the help of borrowed lights from neighbors.
We walked around the block where he showed us the murals on the fronts of stores and how he has fought to keep them there. It was cool to listen to someone who has put so much work into not just a way to get their art out there but to just make the community look better and tell a story.
Cam got to ask him how the group came up with the name Asco. To paraphrase, he said that for their first exhibit they planned to bring all of their worse art for the show. Their asco meaning disgust or garbage. Why no one else asked this question, including myself, is beyond me.
This was a very cool tour and I feel better for having seen it. Its part of the Pacific Standard Time art exhibits that have been going on around the city for a few months now. I have been to some (went to the one at the African American Museum a couple weeks ago). Check it out if you get the chance.
Very neat...im sad I missed it
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