THE LADY VANISHES: ‘WOMAN’ PAINTED OVER

“The Old Woman of the Freeway” mural, a popular landmark visible for 12 years to northbound drivers on the Hollywood Freeway near the downtown interchange, has been painted over.

Artist Kent Twitchell’s afghan-wrapped “Freeway Lady,” which he has called a “monument to the old people we tend . . . to cover over,” was covered over about three weeks ago with white paint, the words “Your Ad Here” and a phone number for Blue Wallscapes, the outdoor advertising company that obscured the mural.

The mural was painted over “because ‘The Old Woman’ was already several years old. It was time for her to rest,” said Koichi Kurokawa, listed as the building’s owner on an application seeking an advertising permit.

Painted in 1974 as part of a mural program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Los Angeles County, the 30- by 22-foot mural was an homage to Twitchell’s grandmother. The woman depicted was modeled after character actress Lillian Bronson. In 1982, a motel was built in front of “The Old Woman”--leaving only her head and shoulders visible. A public outcry at the time failed to halt the motel’s construction.

“I didn’t think she’d ever be destroyed,” said Twitchell, who has painted more than 20 highly visible outdoor murals throughout Los Angeles. “Especially after the battle to build the motel; I thought that was all she’d have to go through.

“Working outside, way deep down you don’t really think these things will last forever,” Twitchell said. “People are real people--they aren’t angels--and any number of things could happen to the paintings.”

The artist said he wasn’t contacted by either Wallscapes or Kurokawa before or since “The Old Woman” was painted over.

“Still, it was a surprise, and ironic. It kind of symbolizes how we treat old people. And after 12 years, I assumed she’d be there for several generations. The paint (a high-grade acrylic emulsion) was very expensive and would have lasted well through the turn of the century.”

Caltrans, which has authority over outdoor advertising visible from freeways, said that Blue Wallscapes (a Mill Valley-based company that painted giant murals of noted athletes around the city for Nike before the 1984 Olympics) acted with the consent of the owner of the building at 1255 W. Temple St. on which the mural was painted. However, by painting the ad company’s own ad on the mural wall, Blue Wallscapes violated the law, said Stan Lancaster, chief of Caltrans’ highway outdoor-advertising program.

Late this week, the Blue Wallscapes ad was painted over. But the company initially painted the ad, Lancaster said, before it had been denied a permit for “off-premise” advertising--ads promoting activities not associated with the premises.

Nov. 17, Lancaster said, Blue Wallscapes applied for the permit with the written consent of Kurokawa, named as property owner on the application. Lancaster said the outdoor wall space was apparently leased to the ad company by Kurokawa, who would not comment on the lease arrangements.

Caltrans denied the permit, Lancaster said, because of a state law that forbids outdoor advertising “within the limits of a landscaped freeway segment” for off-premise advertising.

“Apparently,” Lancaster said, “in anticipation of getting the permit, Blue Wallscapes painted over the mural before we notified them that the permit had been denied” on Dec. 11. According to Twitchell, the mural was “painted out” on Nov. 30.

Tom Harding, an attorney and public relations officer for Blue Wallscapes, said that the mural was painted over because “the property owner” wanted to do something else with the wall that was donated by Kurokawa for Twitchell’s use in 1974. (Twitchell, who had no written agreement to protect his mural, said he does not pay to use any of the walls on which his murals are painted.)

“The owner decided to donate the wall to the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Dept.) for their DARE (anti-drug) program,” Harding said. “The cops called and said we’d like to have the wall.”

However, LAPD Police Sgt. Gary Mears said Harding contacted the LAPD. “He called and said I’d like to loan it to DARE . . . . He said he was looking for a worthwhile cause to loan it to.” But, Mears said, LAPD declined the arrangement when it learned that Wallscapes wanted to charge the LAPD “between $1,200-$1,500” to use the space for about five months.

Meanwhile, Harding said, Wallscapes has received several calls from “people in the art community who claim we’ve vandalized the property.”

Several members of the local art community have brought the issue to the attention of Artists Equity Assn., an organization formed to protect visual artists’ rights. Los Angeles Visual Artists (LAVA), an association of downtown galleries, is also looking into the matter.

“If property owners tried to satisfy every interest group in the country,” Harding said angrily, “this would be more like the Soviet Union than the U.S. . . . . If Mr. Twitchell would care to pay a property owner, perhaps he should do that. Twitchell is using their property to display his art, which promotes his business.”

Now that Blue Wallscapes has removed its ad, Lancaster said, Caltrans will take no legal action against the company, because it is “typical” for ad companies to temporarily run their own ads on empty outdoor spaces they have secured for advertising.

Blue Wallscapes has not reapplied for an off-premise permit, Lancaster said, so the company still must advertise only on-premise activities.

Twitchell, who was paid $154 plus money for materials for “The Old Woman,” said he painted her because “I thought it would be nice to have an old motherly figure to remind us who we are underneath, where we came from.” He was one of 10 artists hired for $17,000 each, including materials, to paint murals along Los Angeles freeways for the 1984 Olympics.

The artist, now completing a six-story portrait of Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha at Olympic Boulevard and Hill Street downtown, hasn’t gotten involved in the current fray.

“I really haven’t done anything, and I won’t do anything,” said Twitchell, whose other murals, including his first--a 1971 portrait of Steve McQueen--still stand. “It doesn’t seem like it’s my right or role. My calling, or my gift, if you will, is to paint in public for people, that’s what I love to do. But when it comes to acting like a lawyer or an advocate for what I do, I just don’t feel comfortable.”

However, the artist believes that the mural could be restored if that were desired.

“I have a material I’ve used to restore other works that have been vandalized. With a little steel wool and water, this material appears to take any paint off,” he said. Twitchell added that the mural was coated with clear plastic once in 1974 and again in 1980.

How would Twitchell react if other murals of his are painted over?

“If it happens real frequently, then I’ll probably stop painting,” he said. “I put a lot of time and effort into ‘The Old Woman’ and it’s too much work to have destroyed for no other reason than for someone to make a few bucks a month for an advertisement.”