Glendale Blvd: Geometric Fields and Strange Symbols

In LA, and I suppose in many other cities, a freeway can act like a canyon or a river, dividing the landscape so that two distinct ecosystems grow up on either side of it. For Silver Lake and Echo Park, that dividing element is the 2 Freeway. Once you go under the 2, you leave the storybook land of quaint little churches and Art Nouveau houses, and you enter, for lack of a better term, Shitsville.

Now this stretch of Glendale Blvd. isn't all bad. For example, right when you go under the 2 you are met by these two cryptic murals.

First is this geometric field mural. I think this mural is really cool, particularly how it is overlapped with the dangling plants, so it really hacks me off that it was tagged. I guess someone was driving by and said:

"Shit, you know what would be cool? What if we got a couple of gallons of turquoise paint, went over to that really cool mural, and threw the paint straight out of the can?"

"What if we did exactly what you said, but used the paint to spell wop?"

"Yes! Wop! That's brilliant! Let's go!"

And this was born:



Just past the tagged-geo-mural, is this smaller piece on an embankment.





I like to think of this mural as a flash board of awesome tattoo ideas. All you need to do is put a grid behind any of these images and they would be great to have on your ankle forever.

Thinking of bad/awesome tattoos on your ankle: In Houston where I grew up there was this tattoo parlor that had a policy of giving girls a free tattoo if their boyfriend got one. The only catch was that you had to pick from one of six dinky designs. There was a mushroom, a four-leaf clover, and some other such crap. Now this place was frequented by a bunch of underage punk-rock kids, and what happened is all these punk-rock girls ended up getting one of these six tattoos. So you'd go to a punk show and there would be ten girls with the same crappy mushroom tattoo on their ankle. I had a good friends who was one of those girls. She also had the misfortune of getting her boyfriend's name tattooed under the mushroom, which she had to carve out later with an Xacto knife.





Mixed in with all these random symbols was the equally cryptic markings of LA DWP on the sidewalk. I know both the mural and the DWP markings mean something to someone, but for the rest of us, we can only speculate. It's like hieroglyphics from two different dynasties.




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Glendale Blvd: Loma Vista Gaudi House and Heart Light Pole

Now this apartment building is not strictly on Glendale Blvd., but this blog isn't about being dogmatic. I could see it from Glendale, so I photographed it.

This place is really amazing. Known as the Burrows Residence, it's tucked back in a hill off of Glendale Blvd. at 2348 Loma Vista Place. I've passed it a million times thinking it was built by some kook in the 80's who wanted a Gaudi-inspired house. Actually it was built in 1921 by Chicago architect Charles F. Whittlesey (1867–1941), a contemporary of Gaudi (1852–1926).

If you're unfamiliar, Gaudi (pictured right) was a Spanish architect often associated with Art Nouveau and who was known for his organic forms and his use of mosiac techniques.





Here's some more info about the house I got from TheSilverLakeNews.com:

Chicago Architect Charles F. Whittlesey, was an early proponent of a distinctively 'southwestern' style of architecture which combined native elements and materials from Spanish and Indian culture; resulting in a style loosely referred to as 'Spanish-Pueblo'. Other noteworthy early proponents of the style include Bertram Goodhue, Charles Lummis and Louis Curtis.

Originally built as a duplex in 1921, The Burrows Residence stands in striking departure from Whittlesey's main body of work. Fanciful and playful, the Burrows Residence is no doubt inspired by the influence of Antoni Gaudi, the great Barcelona architect, a contemporary of Whittlesey's.

For some great pictures of Whittlesey's other work in Los Angeles, check out the excellent LA architecture site you-are-here.com.





One of my favorite details was that the wall above was on one side of the driveway and the wall below was on the other side of the driveway. I love the way the blue tiles mirror the blue flowers.



At the corner of Loma Vista and Glendale is this light pole covered in hearts. Who did this and why can't they make all light poles this cute?

Although, black light poles may be a little dangerous. But that's how I like things, cute but potentially deadly.




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Glendale Blvd: Hallelujah Prayer Center Jesus/Sheep Mural

The Hallelujah Prayer Center is a Korean-oriented church. I'm not sure, but I think it's Pentecostal. Anyway, they've got a great mural.

Here's the front wall in detail:







I love the interplay between the painted imagery and the actual landscape.













Check out this little guy on the right side. He's hiding behind the painted bush as well as the actual bush. That's the work of a mastermind.









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Glendale Blvd: Cactus Mural for Russell Lorette

This mural at the corner of Glenfeliz Blvd. and Glendale Blvd is a tribute to Russell Lorette, a TV camera man for various news and sports programs.



I found this picture of Russell online. I think his sister posted it. I like that I was able to find this picture and put a name to the face. I work in production and I can definitely imagine this guy on set. He just has the look of someone in production.

On another website, Pictures of Murals in Los Angeles, it says that Russell committed suicide. I'm not sure how they got that information. The site also has pictures of an earlier version of the mural, before the sky was expanded and before the electrical box was painted.







The mural was done by Rafael Escamilla, a Salvadoran-born artist with murals around Atwater and other parts of Los Angeles.



I love that the electrical boxes have also been painted so that it doesn't become like an editing device in a John Baldessari piece.






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Glendale Blvd: The Status Faction Wall

At Boyce Ave. and Glendale Blvd., the art group The Status Faction put up a wall of posters. The Status Faction (a.k.a. That Shit's Fresh and TSF) has work all over LA. Now I'm not a huge fan of poster art/street art in general, but who doesn't like a wall plastered with sharks and red skull-men. The Buddhas are where they lose me.








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Imperial Highway: Lynwood High School Fences

On the medians across the street from Lynwood High School, there are these series of fences depicting school-related themes.

I suppose the city erected the fence to beautify the street (and perhaps to prevent kids from jay walking). The students have responded by taking it upon themselves to beautify the fence. It's just a little public discourse between the citizens and the government.



I'd like to applaud the use of grids throughout the fence. I love a good grid sculpture. ANY piece of art can be improved by adding grids. For example, have a bad tattoo? Throw a grid behind it and it's awesome.

And just because it's a grid and has holes, that shouldn't prevent you from spray painting.





Like so much public art, there is an image of the Earth included at some point. See the mural at Los Angeles Southwest college in my post Signs of Inglewood for another example.





I love the picture in picture effect here, with the fence quoting other art from a variety of continents, very democratic:
• A bust of Nefertiti (Africa)
• A man from a Greek vase (Europe)
• An Olmec head (North America)

And again, they improved upon the original by using the grid. I love it.



What does the Vitruvian Man need? A fucking grid, that's what.











Across the street from the fence, this flyer was hung on a telephone pole. I'm kind of into flyers of nobodies promoting themselves. See my post, Signs of Inglewood with Young, Black, & Brilliant for another example.

This is Flakiss, a hip hop artist with a song called, It's Friday Night. Watch the video here, and to give you a taste, below are the actual opening lyrics.

It’s Friday night. We’re headed to the club. My girls are by my side.

Let’s Party!

It’s Friday night. I’m feeling alright. I’m ready to get drunk.

Let’s do it!

I smell Grammy!



If you want more of Flakiss (and who doesn't) you can check out her label Rize High Records and her mySpace page.


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