Time-traveling with the murals of Venice, California


My memories of living in Los Angeles in the 1980s are hazy, especially going to the beach, but I must have visited Venice, because I remember the murals.

Yeah, I know that Venice has a lot of murals, but the ones that I'm talking about were glimpses into the past. They were paintings of what the artist was looking at at the time, and all you had to do to time-travel was to look at the mural, and then turn around.

I really have no idea if any of those old murals have survived, and my ten-minute research on Google images has proved inconclusive. I can't imagine that any of them are still there - they were decades old when I saw them, back in the 1980s.

When the artists painted those murals, they were painting the most ordinary stuff they could see - literally what was right in front of them. And over the years those ordinary images became extraordinary. And I believe that the ordinary photos that people are taking right now, and posting on Instagram or Facebook, will become just as extraordinary. And hopefully they will be saved.

Of course, just paintings of old streets aren't all that amazing. What was amazing was to stand there, look at the mural, and turn around. I did some of my best time-traveling in Venice.

Photo by Edward Lopez, who was also there admiring the murals in the 1980s. Thank you, Edward!
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Comments

  1. Edward LopezJune 23, 2020 at 2:24 PM

    I took the photo of the mural shown above in the 1980s when I lived in North Hollywood. Wherever on the Internet this photo was found, I should have been credited. But it's okay and I'm honored that it was used to illustrate memories of Venice Beach as it was then.

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    Replies
    1. Brad HallJune 23, 2020 at 2:53 PM

      Hi Edward - thank you so much. You and I were wandering around there at about the same time - I'm glad that you had the wisdom to take the photo, and the generosity to share it. I have added a photo credit to the post. Do you suppose that there would be any way to find out the name of the artist who painted the mural? I'd like to give credit there as well.

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