‘OLD WOMAN OF FREEWAY’ GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

The ‘Old Woman of the Freeway ‘ (was a) monument to the old people we tend . . . to cover over.

--artist Kent Twitchell

The last vestige of the “Old Woman of the Freeway” is gone. Like her granny-square afghan and wavy white hair, her piercing blue eyes are now covered with paint.

The “Freeway Lady,” as some also called her, was the popular mural visible for 12 years to northbound drivers on the Hollywood Freeway near the downtown Los Angeles interchange. Artist Kent Twitchell painted the artwork in 1974 to honor his great-grandmother.

The entire mural, which had been partially obscured by a new motel five years ago, was covered over with white block-out paint last November by Blue Wallscapes, an outdoor advertising company that had leased a wall of the building on which the mural was painted from the building’s owner, Koichi Kurokawa.

However, Twitchell removed the block-out paint from “The Freeway Lady’s” eyes a few weeks later after a public outcry prompted Kurokawa and Blue Wallscapes--neither of whom notified Twitchell before the mural was painted over--to allow the artist to see if restoration was possible.

Though restoration seemed to prove possible and Blue Wallscapes pledged its cooperation for the process, Twitchell has not wanted to restore the “Freeway Lady” at its original site, however, and has not attempted to do so.

“I’d rather put her . . . where she’d be more appreciated . . . than force her down the throat of someone who hates her,” he told The Times in January. Twitchell also has said he wants to obtain an agreement from Kurokawa stating that the mural would never be painted over again, which he has been unable to do.

It is not known who or why the “Freeway Lady’s” eyes were painted over about one month ago. Kurokawa did not return several calls made by The Times and Barry Blue, president of Blue Wallscapes, said Thursday that the ad firm did not paint over the eyes of the mural. A Blue Wallscapes logo that had remained on the wall after the mural’s demise also has been painted over.

“Knowing the eyes are gone gives me a kind of a final feeling,” Twitchell said Thursday. “It just seems like a final closing of the coffin lid.”

The 30-foot-tall “Freeway Lady” mural may be repainted at a new location, said Bill Lasarow, Twitchell’s art gallery representative, though no definite plans to do so have been made.

Lasarow also said there is a “definite possibility” that Twitchell may take legal action against Kurokawa.

“However, we’re holding off on that now,” he said, “and until Kent decides to pursue that, we won’t actively pursue it.

“Kent’s juice and energy are focused on finishing Strother Martin,” Lasarow added, referring to Twitchell’s 16-year-old mural in Hollywood depicting the late character actor that was painted over six weeks after the “Freeway Lady’s” defacement.