‘FREEWAY LADY’ OPENS EYES AGAIN

Aha! There’s the eye! There’s the eye! --Muralist Kent Twitchell

“The Old Woman of the Freeway” can see again.

Wielding a heat gun and spatula, artist Kent Twitchell and an art restoration expert exposed the blue eyes of Twitchell’s “Freeway Lady” mural Saturday, peeling away the white block-out paint put there about a month ago by an advertising company that painted over the entire artwork.

“She lives!” cheered Twitchell as art restorer Nathan Zakheim finished removing a three-square-foot patch of paint.

“She lives!” echoed Zakheim. The men shook hands heartily, elated over the successful removal of paint that Zakheim said proved the mural can be physically restored.

Twitchell’s popular mural, visible for 12 years from the northbound Hollywood Freeway near the downtown interchange, was painted over by Blue Wallscapes outdoor advertising company on Nov. 30. The ad company leased the building at 1255 W. Temple St. on which the mural was painted from its owner, Koichi Kurokawa. Neither party contacted Twitchell before the mural was covered over.

According to Caltrans, Blue Wallscapes applied for a permit, but acted illegally when it painted over the mural by posting its own phone number and the words “Your Ad Here” on the white background.

The state agency, which has authority over outdoor advertising visible from freeways, denied the ad company the permit for “off-premise” advertising, or ads not associated with the premises. But Blue Wallscapes had already painted over the mural with its “Your Ad Here.” The company later painted over that ad and Caltrans never issued a citat1768910382frequently advertise their own services on billboards or buildings they wish to lease to other companies, a Caltrans spokesman said.

However, a public outcry against the painting over of the mural prompted Blue Wallscapes early last week to pledge to restore it.

Blue Wallscapes will “do whatever it takes,” to restore the mural, said Barry Blue, president of the ad company, which also painted giant murals of noted athletes around the city for Nike before the 1984 Olympics.

Late last week, Blue said that building owner Kurokawa “will cooperate. If Kent can restore the mural, that’s terrific. That’s the solution.” Kurokawa has not returned numerous calls from The Times.

Saturday, with Kurokawa’s reported consent, Twitchell, Zakheim and Zakheim’s 11-year-old daughter and assistant Shakuntala, climbed through the balcony of an empty second-story room of the Prince Hotel, which flanks the mural, to the hotel’s slanted, gravelly roof. The hotel, also owned by Kurokawa, was built in 1982, obscuring all but the head and shoulders of the “Freeway Lady.”

About 40 feet above the freeway, with weekend traffic whizzing by, the team set to work on the hotel roof, armed with cans of eye-burning chemical solvents, cotton swabs, razor blades, the paint-softening heat gun, and tools resembling wire toothbrushes and long wooden Q-Tips.

Zakheim, a friend of Twitchell’s who has worked as an art restorer for 20 years, gingerly dabbed and scraped at the wall, seeking the right combination of solvents to remove the opaque white paint--used to block out old billboard ads--without removing the mural beneath it.

Several initial attempts failed, including Twitchell’s cautious attack with a gel used to remove graffiti. “This block-out white, boy, is really opaque. We’re at Nathan’s mercy now,” Twitchell said, throwing up his hands in dismay.

Then suddenly, using the 800-degree hand-held hot air gun over an application of methylene chloride and a $1.29 paint spatula, Zakheim found the solution and exposed a spot of vibrant blue and green of the “Freeway Lady’s” homey afghan.

Jumping up from the roof, Twitchell yelled, “Wow! Look at this! Look at this! You’re on to something, Nathan, you’re on to something big!”

“We’re witnessing the answer to prayers,” Zakheim said with a broad grin. The pair grabbed each other’s arms and grunted with joy. Shakuntala chirped, “It looks great, Daddy!”

Then, Twitchell ran downstairs to get a ladder from his truck. The artist returned to the roof--where the real work was about to begin.

Standing on the ladder just two feet from the edge of the roof, his legs supported by Twitchell and Shakuntala, Zakheim slowly peeled away the paint covering the “Freeway Lady’s” eyes.

“Aha! There’s the eye! There’s the eye!” shouted Twitchell as one sky-blue iris began to peak through the barren white expanse. “And that’s the left eye. That was the judgmental one, and the right eye was the loving eye. That’s how I got her to change expressions, so when people drove by, they’d see different things in her.”

Zakheim’s sturdy arms, extended above his head to position the heat gun, began to ache, as the chemical fumes made him blink and cough. But he continued the laborious process.

“There’s her pupil!” yelled Twitchell, above the drone of traffic and the buzz of the electrical heat gun. The artist took a short turn on the ladder to give a Zakheim a rest.

Finally, about 90 minutes after the ladder had been brought to the site, both of the “Freeway Lady’s” eyes stared out intently from the wall. “The forces of darkness are being pushed aside!” a triumphant, though tired and hungry Zakheim said.

“I just wanted everyone to know she was still alive,” Twitchell said contentedly.

The restoration method worked because Twitchell had protected the mural twice in 12 years with a clear plastic varnish, Zakheim said. Without unduly harming the original mural paint, the heat gun melted the protective varnish, which peeled away, taking with it the white block-out paint.

Twitchell and Zakheim agreed that the remaining restoration must be resumed as soon as possible. “The (cover-up paint) is coming off well now ,” Zakheim said, “because it’s still flexible. It takes about one month for that paint to cure (harden). But in another month this will be much more difficult.”

Twitchell, whose more than 20 other murals painted throughout the city still stand, said the color and resiliency of the original mural paint “is holding up surprisingly well.” He also said he wasn’t worried about a bubbling-up of some parts of the mural caused by the heat gun, as long as the mural is left untouched before further restoration. That effort would probably include a touching-up and the application of several coats of clear protective varnish, the artist said.

With five-day workweeks, the restoration process should take about a month, Zakheim said. “Even if we have to go over this (with the heat gun) two or three times, it will be faster than repainting the mural,” he added. “But we need volunteers, that’s for sure, preferably volunteers with heat guns.” Scaffolding and a suction tool to grab flakes of falling paint are also needed, he said.

Character actress Lillian Bronson, now 84, posed for Twitchell when he painted the 30- by 22-foot mural in 1974 in homage to his grandmother. It was created as part of a mural program funded by Los Angeles County and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Though Saturday’s restoration attempt seemed successful, Twitchell now faces other battles. While Blue Wallscapes has expressed its willingness for restoration, permission to fully restore the mural must be secured through Kurokawa, according to Blue Wallscapes. Twitchell wants to ensure the mural’s long-term survival in writing. He said his attorney is investigating whether the county and Kurokawa entered into a legally binding arrangement--when the mural was originally painted--committing the wall space to it for an extended period of time.

The question of payment for restoration of the mural must also be resolved. Twitchell said payment will depend on arrangements his attorney can make with Blue Wallscapes. (Both Twitchell and Zakheim volunteered their services on Saturday. Blue said last week that he couldn’t comment on whether Twitchell would be paid until he found out how much Twitchell would charge. Twitchell told The Times that his attorney will make those arrangements.)

Neither Kurokawa nor Blue could be reached for comment after the mural was partially uncovered. Workers at the Prince Hotel said Kurokawa was out of town until an unspecified date sometime after the New Year. Blue said last week that he would be out of town from Dec. 27 to Jan. 5.

However, Zakheim said, “We’ve proven (the restoration) can be done. “What comes next will depend on a lot of factors, but we’ve tried to restore it, and it can be done.”