And Then Along Came ALZA

Tue, Aug 12, 2008

NELA Street Art

First, let it be said that Los Angeles is a city of murals.  And Angelinos love their local murals.

In Highland Park, Mexico-Tenochtitlan “The Wall That Talks”, is one of the largest, and one of the most striking murals.

The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA) sets the date of its creation as 1996.  If you’d have asked me, I’ve have said it’s been there for 25 or 30 years.  It is a fixture.

In recent years, however, “The Wall That Talks” has been marred by taggers.

 

And then along came ALZA.  ALZA is a traveling sign painter.  He sells local small business owners on the idea of creating signage for their businesses in a spray painted, grafitti style.  EL CHAVO has documented some of ALZA’s work here.

The thing about ALZA, he adds a little philosophy to many of his signs.  Good, solid philosophy that you really can’t argue with.  Philosophy such as:  “live to learn, learn 2 live”, “respect your hood”, and “art is the key”.

ALZA decide to take matters into his own hands at “The Wall That Talks”.  He inscribed his message right on the mural.  “Don’t you care? Act like you care.”

Waltrrrrr is enraged, and rightfully so.  On, the one hand, I am also enraged, but, on the other hand, I sense ALZA’s message in some strange way seems to belong there.

Also posted on Localism

This post was written by:

cheryljns - who has written 51 posts on Eclectic Angelino.


Contact the author

0 Comments For This Post

1 Trackbacks For This Post

  1. Peace in the Northeast March | Eclectic Angelino Says:

    [...] speeches, or meetings, or even marches. So what is the answer?  Is it in ALZA’s words:  “Don’t you care?  Act like you care.” How do you say “It’s just not cool to shoot [...]

Leave a Reply