Taggers and Graffiti Vandals Put On Notice by God Father?
LA Art Show Booth for Fine Art Conservation Lab.
While sitting in my booth at the LA Art Show I looked up and noticed a man young man in his late 20’s in a fashion challenged suit and tie staring at my wide screen monitor of the many photos of the processes of graffiti removal from the freeway mural Jim Morphesis Monument. He asked me why I thought there was no good quality graffiti art in this art expo. We went back and forth with a few ideas and then I asked him if he was an artist. He had been a tagger in his younger years but he was “way over that now.” In fact, he was sorry and knows it was wrong. He’s doing some artwork with graffiti art style. He had never heard the term “aerosol art.” He even dropped MCLA’s name as an organization for whom he was doing art. Then he mentioned, nodding at the monitor, that he knew all about what’s been happening with this mural on the freeway. He said he knew the taggers in town and that there are a couple of “older guys” that are kind of like the God Fathers of tagging. He said they liked the clean up efforts we’re doing to make the mural visible again. After the second time the mural got tagged (after our cleaning), he said, “these older guys put it out over the Internet, on Facebook and stuff, that if anyone hits this mural again, they will hunt them down and make them pay for the disrespect.” Wohoa! In fact, its been 8 weeks now and the mural is still clean… we’ll see. Well, one thing that has also probably helped has been, in response to this vandalism, Caltrans installed a video surveillance system to monitor the mural. The system included two cameras, direct response from LAPD, monitoring by central office, storage of recording from video. In addition, daily checking up on the system by Caltrans is planned until the tagging stops.
The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA) is the organization that has embraced the grass roots effort to rally the community to supporting the removal of graffiti from public outdoor murals in Los Angeles… and to keep it off with “on call” maintenance. Isabel Rojas-‐Williams is the energy behind the Executive Director title that excels in people skills and likability. Three short videos have been made about this project and can be seen on the blog for the project: Video 1. Testing, Video 2. Graffiti Removal, Video 3. Restoration. Go to http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/jim-‐morphesis-‐monument-‐by-‐kent-‐ twitchell/ There has been a general gasp of amazement and excitement seeing the really terrific, world class, colorful mural of Jim Morphesis Monument by Kent Twitchell resurface again, clean and gorgeous.
Jim Morphesis Monument by Kent Twitchell after graffiti removal, retouching, protective varnish Located at the Grand Ave. overpass of the 101 frwy near N. Temple and W. Hope St., Downtown, Los Angeles Photo by Gil Ortiz
The consultation work of organizing logistics and the art conservation – restoration services for this mural conservation project were provided by Scott M. Haskins, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories, FACL, Inc. 805 564 3438 faclartdoc@gmail.com