Art on the Go : Giant Murals an Ephemeral Medium in Rush, Rush, Rush to Garner Attention

Behind every painting on a wall there’s a story.

The naked upper body of Cyndi Lauper lying, with fingernails extended, upon her own reflection demands the attention of pedestrians walking by Tower Records on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.

It’s a reproduction of her latest album cover by commercial artist Tony Rivas in his Arleta studio.

Rivas and Pat Solomon, whose Solbrook Design Studio is in North Hollywood, are leaders of the genre called art boards. The hand-painted, oil portraits of recording artists are commissioned by the recording companies and hung inside and outside of record stores.

In spite of all the work that goes into it, the art board is an ephemeral medium. A portrait usually hangs about three weeks and may get an encore or two when the artist gives a concert, Rivas’ wife and business manager, Joni, said. After that, it is painted over with a new star.

“It’s always rush, rush in this business,” Rivas said.

The pace is a little lazier a few miles away on Lankershim Boulevard, where a skyscape of cumulus clouds juts upward from a storefront, contrasting with the day’s actually cloudless sky.

The mural’s pastoral message hardly rescues one of the ugliest facades in that withered business district.

Beneath it, the windows of a former carpet store are boarded over with plywood to block any light from getting in or sound from escaping what is now a Rock ‘n’ Roll recording studio called The Alley.

A gruff man who answered the bell at an office in the back that was decorated like a frontier fort refused to give any information about the painting or its creator except on the condition that his building would not be mentioned in print.

Not a very good deal. The story of the cloud mural will remain untold.

A more explicit message appears on a wall opposite a supermarket parking lot on Reseda Boulevard, just south of Nordhoff Street.

It is creature with long, daggerlike fingernails, hair all over his face and a menacing smile.

“Come to the Golden Apple, or else,” he commands.

Any fan of Marvel Comics would recognize the visage as that of Wolverine.

The face, along with that of Cyclops and Spiderman, were painted by C. E. Smith of Hollywood.

Smith isn’t really a muralist. He’s a Hollywood sound technician. But he loves comic books and says he “just has a talent” for art.

Smith said the owner of the Golden Apple comic-book store, a friend of his, gave him some comic books for inspiration and turned him loose on the side of the store.

The result may look a little weird to the women pushing shopping carts in front of it. But their kids should understand.