The Street Seen: In to Murals
Ocean Park Blvd @ 4th Street Underpass
This Sunday, November 14 Santa Monica Conservancy is presenting Santa Monica WALL TO WALL - Exploring the City’s Street Murals and the Stories They Tell. There is a self-guided tour and a virtual discussion from 5:00 to 6:15 p.m. In addition to the importance of the murals to the community, the discussion will include preservation of the murals from the environment, and unfortunately, from graffiti vandals.
In Ocean Park on the south and north walls of the Ocean Park Boulevard 4th Street underpass, there are two monumental murals - each approximately 8,400 sq ft. Jane Golden, who painted the John Muir mural on the corner of Ocean Park and Lincoln in 1978, began work on murals on both walls in 1979. However she abandoned the project three years later after struggles with health issues and after several attacks by graffiti vandals.
Daniel Alonzo painted Whale of a Mural on the south wall in 1983. The 30-foot high by 630-foot long mural depicts whales, fish, and other aquatic creatures swimming in the Pacific. The mural is painted with acrylic paint with an acrylic protective coating as well as a sacrificial anti-graffiti coating up to 6 feet from the ground.
David Gordon, with funding from the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation of Art, painted Unbridled on the north wall in 1985. The mural depicts a fantasy about Santa Monica Pier’s carousel horses coming to life and escaping to frolic on the beach. The mural is painted in pastel colors with Keim paints (potassium silicate based paint). There appears to be a sacrificial anti-graffiti coating across the mural, though it does not appear to be adhering well to the surface.