Shortly thereafter, I returned home to Signal Hill, where I started seeing the same kind of offensive artwork on both private and public property.
Nowadays, rather than graffiti, I am noticing more and more artists creating mural-like public art. These creative and colorful paintings are sanctioned by the property owners and are often produced with the help of many hands.
To name a few of the local murals that beautify the areas, I cite not only the breathtaking California Heights artwork that adorns the wall at the corner of Wardlow Road and Orange Avenue, and also the beautiful veterans-themed mural at the cross streets of Harding Street and Atlantic Avenue, but also the child-centered public painting located in Signal Hill on a wall at the city’s public basketball court.
It has recently come to my attention that there is a new mural situated in Bixby Knolls. Rather than try to put the story of the artwork in my own words, I have included information below from a press release forwarded to us from Blair Cohn, executive director of the BKBIA, on behalf of the Fire Dragons Fire Club:
The First Fridays mural project was a collaboration between the Fire Dragons Camp Fire Club (a member of the Long Beach Camp Fire Association) and the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA). Every year, each Camp Fire Club takes responsibility for a service project (known as “Kiniya” ), and this year, the kids decided to paint a mural in Bixby Knolls and to partner with the BKBIA to carry it out. BKBIA president Blair Cohn helped us to locate artists and a site for the mural, handle logistics associated with the painting itself, and finance the project.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Thoughts-2.png” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”The completed mural” captionposition=”right”] The Fire Dragons raised money through Camp Fire candy sales, a garage sale, a recycling drive, and donations, including from Luis Navarro of Lola’s Restaurant, who provided a key donation early on in our planning. The kids generated the concept for the mural and helped with the painting. To create this mural, we asked the kids what images represent their neighborhood of Bixby Knolls.
Their suggestions were “First Fridays, local shops and businesses, Atlantic Avenue, musicians, ‘Bixby Knolls’ written in cursive, Rancho Los Cerritos, the beautiful tree at Rancho Los Cerritos and nature.” We passed these suggestions along to artists Eric Leffler and Elena Rodriguez Vieiro, and they designed the actual mural and did much of the painting. We are thrilled with the results!
The Fire Dragons are a group of six 8th graders at Hughes Middle School. They have been together as a Camp Fire Club since they were in kindergarten. Their names are Raphael Coutin, Aidan DeCure, Willem DeWit, Ben Mueller, Gabriel Sagrera and Owen Skinner. They all helped with the painting, as did some of their younger siblings: Casey, Matt, Ian and Wesley. Nora Mueller is the Fire Dragon’s leader, and Susan Coutin is the assistant leader.
