City Imprint Makes Beach an Arty Scene

Hundreds of people crushed jammed freeways, office buildings and housing tracts on Sunday when they trod over “Walk on L.A.,” a two-inch high detailed cityscape imprinted on about a quarter mile of sand at Santa Monica beach.

A 14-ton concrete roller indented with an intricate pattern of a cityscape resembling Los Angeles carved artist Carl Cheng’s sculpture in the sand north of the Santa Monica Pier.

The roller, called the “Santa Monica Art Tool,” acted like a giant cookie cutter and imprinted a continuous 12-foot wide city scape on the sand when a bulldozer hauled it along the beach.

Two-Decade Theme

“I like going to the general public and making a project interesting to them, not just the art collectors,” said the 46-year-old artist. “That has been my general theme for the last 20 years.”

A crowd of several hundred people followed as the roller was used for the first time Sunday afternoon. About a dozen volunteers holding flags cleared a path through beach-goers as the heavy roller was slowly pulled up and down the strand.

Reaction was mostly favorable.

“It’s wonderful,” said Paul Schneider, 47, of Los Angeles. “I like the fact that the city is putting money into art that can be appreciated by thousands of people. It’s art that is also an event.”

Sandra Soderberg, 20, a tourist from Sweden, was somewhat puzzled about the huge roller.

“I like it, but I think it is a bit crazy,” she said. “I don’t know why they’re doing this.”

Matthew Rosenfield, 7, discussed Santa Monica’s latest venture into public art while digging a large hole near something that looked like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Even the Dumb Schools

“I like that the roller goes all over the place,” he said as he scooped out sand with his hands. “You can see all the cars and the dumb schools.”

Cheng’s art work is the second sculpture commissioned for the city’s beaches as part of a planned 10-piece “Natural Elements Sculpture Park.” The first work, two 16-foot high steel chairs that produce tones when the wind hits them, is on the beach near Pico Boulevard. All the artists’ sculptures will use natural elements such as the wind, sun or sand.

“I like using natural materials,” Cheng said. “I’m inspired by philosophical questions about man being a part of nature.”

Cheng said he has spent years taking aerial photographs of Southern California.

“I thought about this and decided what I wanted to do was make a generic Los Angeles,” he said. The roller’s imprint had to “have that sprawl look to it.”

From the air, Los Angeles “is a carpet of grids, streets, pavement and freeways running all over,” Cheng said. “Freeways are, predictably, the dominating feature.”

Gridlock Portrayed

The detailed cityscape has some humorous comments on Los Angeles hidden within the pattern--including gridlocked freeways and traffic accidents, Cheng said.

Cheng received a $60,000 commission, paid for by the city of Santa Monica, the National Endowment for the Arts and SMARTS, a nonprofit foundation that raises funds for public art works in Santa Monica.

The roller will be on permanent display north of the pier along with a 30-foot section of beach imprinted with the cityscape, which will be renewed daily.