Long Beach Post: Video: We Love Long Beach Community Mural Project

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Video: We Love Long Beach Community Mural Project

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8:30am | Scott Jones, founder of We Love Long Beach, and 1st District City Councilmember Robert Garcia, speak about yesterday's collaborative community beautification project which will create a series of murals to surround the now vacant building that once housed the Press Telegram on Pine Avenue in Downtown Long Beach. The project was a combined effort of We Love Long Beach, the Molina family, Councilmember Garcia, the Arts Council for Long Beach, Lyon's Art Supply, the DLBA, and many local artists, students, and community volunteers.

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23 Comments so far.

Swimmaven
blah . . .blah . . . blah . . . 2.5 minutes of Scott Jones, then Robert Garcia, mentioning the Molina Family several times, arts council several times . . . AND A BUNCH OF ARTISTS. Good graffiti magnet. They like to decorate over lame things. What little was photographed. And no, the video does not arouse my curiousity to drive across town to see it. Nor do I want similar panels in my neighborhood. Just screams desperation.

Howie
Look I love art but I dont see the beauty of having political paintings all over the city.It is just an extension of Graffiti..

Capster
I love it! In addition to "We Love Long Beach", I got an image of "We Love, Long Beach!" The comma added, for me, signifies the greater love Scott spoke of in his narrative. We do indeed love Long Beach, but more important possibly, we bring forth and express love and joy, which transcends our current thinking of having to have boundaries of various descriptions, and then loving our culture, our race, our city or state or country, when in fact all we need do is love, period. Keep it spreading Scott, you and all the energy you've drawn together in this project will help spread that attitude into our day to day thinking and acting, and who we choose to be in the moment!

Yeah
As an artist, I hate to say it but I kind of agree. Long Beach wants to be known as an arts city, but it always seems like they miss the whole concept of what art is. Art is provocative and makes people think. This project looks like nothing but another advertising campaign. Just a giant billboard. Just because you used paint doesn't automatically make it art. The city is too worried about creating things that everyone finds acceptable. Nice thought I suppose, but not something that really promotes art. Take for instance a mural that was recently created on Cherry Ave. It was created by a tattoo shop and looked... well rather tattoo -like. A little rough and edgy. The city made them paint over it because they received several complaints from residents about it's content. (Which, wasn't really all that bad, the only thing that I saw on it that may have been objectionable was a big skull...a fairly typ tattoo I'm sure.) But the point is, if I was the artist that took all that time, or the owner that spent all that money on creating it, (and it wasn't blatantly pornographic or gang related) I would be rather ticked off about the city censoring my work based on some complaints. You can never please everyone and I think the city is missing out on some really interesting work by only allowing these bubble-gum pop, might-as-well-be billboard murals. If we want to do murals, lets get some that spark some interest and start some conversation. A little edge goes a long way.

LB observer
Desperation is what I see, too, in putting "art" on panels that protect some windows of a building that's neglected. I fear it makes a sad story more obvious, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that grafitti will not soon disfigure it, making the the entire corner more obviously past its prime. Remember when that corner always had some pedestrians going in and out of the newspaper? History now!

Angel
Positive and worthwhile effort! This creative effort brings local artists from grass roots to make a statement! "We Love, Long Beach!" Kudos to Artists and Councilman Garcia. Thank you

ElJefe
Desperation and neglect doesn't even scratch the surface here. So much for the building plans. What's it been, 3, 4 years? "Hurry... retailers, restaurants, everyone ...out! We've got plans to paint some sh*t on this building in a few years." This is a joke. Michelangelo couldn't cover up the fact that whoever was in charge of this miserable failure should be looking for work elsewhere.

Wack
Was a public hearing held prior to the approval of this project? Were my tax dollars used to provide the supplies? Was a call for artists issued with a sketch review/approval? As much as this project does have some good potential, could we get some decent art without the advertisements? I hate to be really negative, but I think the quality of what we've seen so far does serious harm to the image of the arts in LB. It's nice that these small selections of groups chosen to participate are all in love with each other, but the cronyism of this crew, and the Post is really starting to show and is doing more harm then good. We have serious issues to address in this city. School cuts, violence, and jobs. If we plan to use arts as one of the elements of the vehicle to fix these problems, can we at least get something of high quality??? I agree with "Yeah", and I hate to say it but this is wack.

sally
everyone who walked by on pine gave such positive feedback and were so thankful for what was happening. there is nothing political about this project. all of the artists worked off long beach inspirations and what they loved about this city.

The Man
Hmmmm....

CHARLIE
I have to agree with Yeah and Wack - It's a bad idea and another avenue for a few artistic ego's to once again display their works on an abandoned building - another form of graffiti...

CalHtsJohnny
Whether one likes the final product here is irrelevant, I think. The point is that folks are coming together, working together, donating their time and energy to their community and community partnerships. This in itself should be celebrated, not slammed by morning-after armchair quarterbacks. If you have a worthwhile alternative, suggest it and be willing to put in the some time and effort to see it through.

LBGirl
Drove by and sorry, but this is just ugly. It was promoted as an art project that was going to use images from local museums. In the end it is a huge self-promotion for the We Love Long Beach group. Huge turn off.

Andreas
@ 'Yeah' and 'Wack'. You guys already said it best here, not too much to add. I'm a local community member that lives right down the street and is very involved in the neighborhood. To say this project was coordinate and supported by the local residents is a huge stretch. Although this project comes from a good place it is poorly planned and poorly executed. There are a few solid panels and the rest are what you would expect from non-artists on a tight timelime and no planning. It would have been nice to get some submissions going and treat this seriously instead of making it look like an after school project. My only hope is that some real street artists come by to cover up the majority of the amateur panels. Come on LB, raise the bar. Another puff piece from the post.

EFREN LUNA
The video doesn't show much of the murals and the amazing complected project.I just have to say this to all the haters. Name one thing you have done for the city? It's easy to talk the talk and not walk the walk. Tell me all the things you have done for the city (city as in community)... Quit talking mess and get busy doing something! All of these artists have been actively involved in making the city better. If you are bitter because your art was not chosen it's maybe because you haven't taken the time to be involved in the community. The 2 murals I painted were completely a community project. I had two families come out and help, a teacher, and several students. All these helpers volunteered their time. If you want to get involved and make some real change but you don't know how to go about, contact me I will gladly point in it the direction. EFREN LUNA lunaefren@yahoo.com

ElJefe
I'll clarify. While I support artists in general, local and otherwise, I'm not in support of the city's answer to the real issue here. I live blocks from these murals, and would much rather see them than the post wartime look that we've been subjected to the past few years. However, I'd much rather see the businesses that were asked to leave over a mural of any kind.

Summer
Jeez guys, are you all a bunch of curmudgeons or what? Old is in the heart, not in the age.

lisa kyle
last i checked we love long beach is about community not self. i met w/ them recently and found that their passion is in the city and building community in w/ love. maybe you should actually get to know who they are and what their mission is before you bash them.

enough hating
there are people who talk crap, and there are people who do something. thanks WLLB for actually doing something. to the rest of these haters, try getting to know someone before you hate on them. quit being the OPPOSITE of what long beach stands for.

Tim S.
I'm shocked to see all the negative comments on here about the project. When I went to check them out the other night there were lots of people from the neighborhood raving about the art. I'm sure all the people being "haters" don't even live in the area and werent looking at the eyesore that the building was every day. People need to cut the elitist bull and see the project for what it is...ART. Hope for the future of Pine and those empty storefronts.

Sarah
Ditto what Tim S. said. I am shocked by all of the negative comments. Kudos to WLLB, Robert Garcia, the Artists and others for getting people together and making things happen. That's what makes Long Beach GREAT!! For those of you who just want to sit back and bash it, why don't you instead spend your energy doing something positive for your community. What have YOU done lately? I for one hope to see more of this type of community activity in our wonderful town. Go Long Beach!

Sam
Wow - can't believe all the haters with the negative comments? What are you doing living in Long beach anyway? I hear there are great deals on property behind the Orange Curtain right now - places like Irvine and Cota de Caza where such art projects would never be allowed. Check it out. You might be happier there.

Sander
I'm sincerely sorry that I didn't notice until now (7:16 PM on 6/16/10) that there were so many comments here. I'll add two things: 1) This was a community effort with lots of different parties coming together to accomplish something positive. For that, I and all of us should be giving them praise and recognition. 2) In every effort there are opportunities for improvement. Do I think that this is the best we can do? No. Will this team of motivated individuals listen to your ideas about how to improve their efforts, and the results they produce? Absolutely yes. In every public art effort there are those who find it valuable, and those who do not. I can say with great certainty that the WLLB team embraces input, involvement, and participation. They reached out to those individuals they knew who could step up and execute this process. If you want to help them do a better job, reach out to them. Lastly, I just feel the need to say that I really care about the community I serve. I care about giving a voice to local artists and arts supporters. I try to find individuals who, at the very least, I find interesting and bring them to the wider audience that is the readership of the post. This is a volunteer gig for me. I do it because I can. If you dismiss my efforts as fluff, I can't change that, but I do try my best to bring some depth to what I do. I don't always succeed, but I try.

Sander lives with his wife, step-daughter, dogs, and cats. He's an avid photographer, and enjoys creating close-up images of flowers and plants, and capturing urban landscapes. He's been involved in music production since the early 80's, and worked professionally as an audio engineer, live sound mixer, and producer.

Sander Roscoe Wolff is a musician, artist, and was co-founder and Executive Director of LongBeachCulture.org, the City's first comprehensive, and free, arts calendar and registry.

He has served on the boards of the 2nd City Council Art Gallery + Performance Space and the East Village Arts District, curated a 6 month gallery exhibition in the Long Beach World Trade Center, and produced Songs For Bethune, a CD of original and traditional holiday songs by local artists, to raise funds for the Arts Council's Passport to the Arts program.

His work has been featured in local gallery exhibitions, in SoundWalk, and L.A. Siggraph's Photon Ballet.

His current music project is Ain Soph Aur, a systems based improvisational performance duo and studio team.