The Postcards are Baaaaaaack!!!!!!

Thanks to the tremendous organizational and artistic skills of Lori Escalera, the Postcards from Ballona mural is once again up and running. Who would have thought that just a week ago the wall behind the Julian Dixon Library in Culver City was nothing more than a graffiti-covered eyesore—and now it is once again telling the history of the Ballona area.

Artists Lucy Blake-Elahi and Francois Bardol seemed to render their magic in the blink of an eye (and like every artist, super-critical of their own work, no matter how good it is!). Philip Nagai (Culver City Art Group member and second place winner in the 2008 Holiday Show) turned out to be a great asset to the project.

All the volunteers (whose numbers seemed to increase as the days passed) were terrific. The project could not have been completed without them. This was truly a community effort of artists, students and neighbors. The citizens of Culver City once again showed their true colors as people who get involved when they are asked.

And as the painters worked, cyclists on the bike path shouted out their thanks and encouragement as they rode by. It's nice to know this mural makes a difference and is appreciated.

But the project doesn't end here. Taggers and vandals are still are a problem. It's up to all of us to be vigilant and report any graffiti or damage. You can call 310.253.5776.

Click here for a gallery of photos as the mural looked Wednesday afternoon, nearing completion.

The Renovated Mural Emerges

Artist Philip Nagai, Culver Art Group member, paints the sun

On Tuesday the mural really began to shape up.

Students from nearby Culver City schools came by to hear the story of the mural and its significance to the community.

Artist Francois Bardol talks to local students

Hopefully, with the involvement of the community, we can keep our beautiful renovated mural graffiti-free from now on.

For a Flash photo gallery with more photos, click here.

(all photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Community Mural Scheduled for Completion on Earth Day

Culver City, CA, April 22, 2009 – The Postcards from Ballona mural is scheduled for completion today, Earth Day, April 22, 2009. The mural is located on the bicycle path at Overland Avenue, behind the Julian Dixon Library branch in Culver City.

In 1995, three artists (Lori Escalera, Lucy Blake-Elahi, and Francois Bardol) and community volunteers—"The Ballona Creek Mural Committee"—conceived of an art project intended to beautify a section of the Ballona Creek bike path with “postcards” depicting the history of Culver City. (Ballona Creek was important to the livelihood of the Native Americans who once inhabited the area as well as the development of Culver City. For information on the early settlers and on Culver City, visit www.culvercity.org).

The scope of the project included gathering together local students, government, Culver City organizations, resident artists, and volunteers in order to create a sense of community involvement. The mural was completed in 1997.

In recent years, the mural has been subjected to vandalism and graffiti. With this restoration, the damage will be reversed.

As was the case when the mural was originally created, this restoration project is intended in part as a public awareness effort to help better protect the mural from future damage. Everybody is invited to come by, meet the artists, take photos, and view the mural as it nears completion.

For more information and to access downloadable photos and movie, please visit http://thestreetpainter.com/CommunityArt/UPCOMING%21.html

Get Ready, Get Set, Paint!


Another hot hot hot day on Ballona Creek. But that didn't deter the artists and volunteers who worked all day.

To see a gallery of more photos. click here!

(photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Measuring, Snapping and Drawing

Sunday saw the first stirrings of life on the bright white wall behind the Julian Dixon Library. Artists and volunteers gathered on one of the hottest days of the year to get started on the renewal of the Postcards from Ballona mural. First the wall was measured and marked off with the use of a level. Then the lines were snapped both horizontally and vertically to form squares.

Lori Escalera instructed the volunteers on how to follow the design when drawing on the wall.Then the fun began as volunteers paired up to draw on the wall with markers. No need to worry about mistakes as a pot of white gesso was nearby to cover up any errors.And so the first day came to an end with a job well done.
(For a Flash slide show of the day's events with a lot more photos, click here.)

Tomorrow: painting!

And Now for a Word From our Sponsors...

Albert Vera and Sorrento Market, Splash Water, and Trader Joe's!

Thank you Albert Vera & Sorrento Market!

Thank you SPLASH Water official water sponsor!

Thank you Trader Joes!

We Made the Headlines!

Mural, Mural on the Wall.... Where Did You Go?

This morning not a smidgen of the Postcards From Ballona mural or the ugly graffiti was visible on the wall behind the Julian Dixon Library.

Thanks to the efforts of Aaron Nordquist (at left) the wall is now a smooth, pristine white. Great job!

Just as Michelangelo believed that the sculpture already existed inside the piece of marble, so this wall already holds the new mural, just waiting for the artists to arrive on Sunday to coax it out once again!

Riders on the bike path are already beginning to see something is different. This cyclist seems to be looking at the wall and thinking, didn't there used to be a bunch of graffiti at this spot?

(Photos above copyright roslyn m wilkins)

(Photo below courtesy francois bardol)

"Postcards from Ballona" artist, Lucy Blake-Elahi

Lead artist and coordinator for Los Angeles County Prop A - anti-graffiti project. 1400 sq.ft. painted bisque tile, acrylic, and mosaic mural. Located on the bike path access ramp at La Ballona Creek, Culver City CA. Done with community, youth at risk, two other artists and community group (completed May 2000).

"Postcards from Ballona" artist, Francois Bardol
(Francois in center with other artists Lucy and Lori)
Francois Bardol was raised and studied interior architecture, drafting, design, photography in Paris, France. His early carreer includes experiences in Architecture, Design, and fashion photography. Emigrated to the United States, he developed an early talent for airbrush renderings, water colors, and oil paintings. He has accepted large private commissions amounting to hundreds of historical replicas of various periods. The necessity of being versatile in applied arts commanded experience in various media. Public works, as well as private commissions were accepted in Glass Mosaics Tiles, Gold Leaf, as well as Stone.

(Francois painting original 1997 mural)
Francois' Art can be summarized as representative, in a classical way. "To me, Art is my way to expresss myself and a language to communicate with all. Every new subject is a new word I learn and express, with the knowledge and experience gained through previous works, in a slightly different manner. To young students, I would say this: Do not underestimate Art. In our time, almost anything fabricated starts with an Artist. I am willing to work and share my experience and knowledge with anyone serious, who asks, anytime.
Some of Francois' work can be seen at www.francoisbardol.com.

"Postcards from Ballona" artist, Lori Escalera

In the early 1990’s, Lori took a shift away from commercial interests towards fine art. She went back to school to finish her degrees, which fueled her travels abroad to Spain, Italy and Greece to study the Classics and Antiquities. Her artistic interests are figurative and revolve around the study of the figure. Lori questions the artist's place in the continuum of art history, as well as contemporary cultural beliefs in relationship to history and myth. Lori is a cross medium artist, whose primary work is done in oil paint. She exhibits her creativity thru wet and dry mediums on paper or canvas, and in ceramic tile painting. Her work takes on an energy and vibrancy that refreshes the spirit and enlivens the imagination.

A native Los Angeleno, Lori centered her artistic life in the suburbs of Southern California. Escalera has had a full career as a corporate graphic designer working with aerospace, advertising, institutional and manufacturing firms. In 1995, Lori organized "The Culver City A.R.T. Group,” a fraternal fine art association, and served as President. She is responsible for coordinating art exhibits in businesses, schools, and in public art venues for children and adults. She is a founding board of director for Ballona Creek Renaissance 501c3.

In 1994 Lori began Madonnari (chalk) Street Painting. Today, Lori is a nationally recognized premier Madonnari Artist and is hired to be guest artist at street painting events globally and across the nation. In 2008 Lori became one of the worlds top recognized Street Painters in Modannari Style Street Painting.

Lori also finds expression through her teaching skills. She has instructed hundreds of children and adults her ideas about art history, drawing and painting, through cultural arts programming, private lessons and art camps. Lori has a strong background in working with under served sectors of the community on public art mural projects. She has led the creation of seven community murals between Los Angeles and San Diego Counties, working with community groups and youth. These murals have strengthened the bonds between members of the communities as well as act as anti-graffiti project examples and youth at risk projects.

In 2004 Lori left the corporate commercial arena of arts and began pursuing a life predominately creating art and arts experiences. She has a small collection of public artwork in Southern California, oil paints on canvas, and spends part of the year street painting. She also serves as an activist for artists’ rights issues.

Lori received her Graphic Communication Degree with honors from SDSU. In addition, she holds art degrees from WLA College and Los Angeles Trade Technical College.

Her family currently resides in North San Diego County, California.

Visit her website for more info:
http://www.thestreetpainter.com
http://youtube.com/loriescalera
1348 Clear Crest Cr., Vista CA 92084
760.295.4665

Come Join the Fun! The Postcards From Ballona showcase is up at the Julian Dixon Library on Overland Avenue near Ballona Creek in Culver City.
Stop by and take a look at the photos from the original 1997 community project.
Then, be a part of history and help with the restoration.
(photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Enlisting the Help of Students

In 1997 when the original Ballona Postcards Mural was painted on the side of the Ballona Creek bike path in Culver City, the adult artists were assisted by students from the Culver City schools. The hope is that the same interest can be generated for the renovation starting on April 19.
On Friday, April 3 I attended the 8:00 am Ballona Postcards Mural Restoration presentation at Culver High School. Present were two of the original mural artists, Francois Bardol and Lucy Blake-Elahi. Cathi Lamm, a teacher at the school and a member of the Ballona Creek Renaissance Program, was the facilitator.
Francois Bardol started off the discussion with a general overview of the history of murals starting with cave paintings and on through the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to the present day. He showed some examples of his own work, including the mosaic at the corner of the Culver Police Station building.
Lucy Blake-Elahi talked a little about some of her public art including the sundial on the top of Culver Park.
The students were shown a movie describing the creation of the original Ballona Postcards Mural and how it has deteriorated over the past decade because of neglect, vandalism, and graffiti. About ten students were invited to create drawings of something important in their lives. Francois then asked the artists to explain why they chose to draw what they did and why it was significant to them.
One student drew her future tattoo symbolizing that people can make things better or worse. Another drew a design representing baseball. Another drew a peace sign enclosed in an eye. (One of the drawings by a talented student.)

Francois then said he was going to rip up the drawings because nobody cared about them. Some of the students protested. He explained this was exactly what happened to the mural. The people who vandalized it were in effect saying this mural is not important.
He asked for help from the students. Could they come up with solutions to keep the mural from being vandalized in the future? He suggested one way is to report any graffiti right away while it is still small enough to deal with. The problem now is that the deterioration of the mural has gone on beyond the point of return and has to be completely redone from scratch.
Lucy stated that the mural depicts the history of Culver City and how important the creek was to the development of the city and to the Indians who inhabited the area before that.
She said we can think of the mural as a symbol. If we can keep the mural clean perhaps we can keep the creek itself clean, and that effort could spread out into the community. Today the creek is already so much cleaner than it was ten years ago.
Cathi Lamm closed the session by adding that we don’t want to be spending money on restoration, we would rather have money to spend on new projects.

Click here for more information about this project and how you can help! You don't have to be a student!
(photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Postcards from Ballona

In 1995 a group of artists (Lori Escalera, Lucy Blake-Elahi and Francois Bardol) came together with the idea of beautifying an ugly little section of the Ballona Creek bike path at Overland Avenue in Culver City (next to the library). Their vision encompassed involving local students to paint "postcards" to tell the history of the creek. Over the years this lovely mural has suffered the ravages of neglect, vandalism and graffiti (as you can see in the photo above).

On Sunday, April 19th, 2009, all the damage will begin to be reversed. And you can be part of this important project.

On Sunday you can assist with the drawing and prepping. Monday (20th) through Wednesday (22nd) you can help out with the actual painting.

Everyone is welcome to participate. You don't have to be an artist... just enthusiastic and willing. Bring your children, bring your grandparents!
For more information about the event and the story of the original mural, Lori has put together a great little movie and slide show. All can be found at http://www.thestreetpainter.com/CommunityArt/UPCOMING%21.html.

See you there!

(photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)