Up Against the Wall : Ventura Commissions Mural as Way to Stem Graffiti

Willing yet slightly skeptical, Jeff Newton and several members of his Ventura Avenue gang gathered outside the Westpark Community Center this week. A professional artist was coming to show them how they could turn the graffiti-smeared building into a billboard for conservation.

The tattooed 19-year-old recalled nightly forays through the neighborhood, “tagging anything standing” with red Rustoleum.

But Newton’s concept of art has evolved beyond graffiti, and he and the gang are expressing themselves with an epic work--a 29-foot-high mural commissioned by the city of Ventura.

“I used to paint our name on everything,” said Newton, a member of the Ventura Avenue Gangsters, who will begin work Tuesday on an exterior wall at Westpark.

Ventura artist Leeann Lidz received a $3,000 grant from the Ventura Arts Council, the city and a bank to oversee the mural, which she said will help the youths focus on the positive aspects of conservation.

“My idea is to depict car pools and recycling efforts with an environmental slogan written beneath,” said Lidz, who specializes in large-canvas painting. Her work can be seen downtown at the Palm Street Gallery.

However, some of the youthful artists envisioned a more street-wise theme for the mural.

Newton, who has gained a reputation as the best tagger in the gang, said the mural should depict some of the ethnic elements of Ventura Avenue.

In a flash, he drew his vision on an artist’s pad: a picture of an Aztec Indian walking alongside a 1940s-era Latino man dressed in a zoot suit.

“Something like this would be down,” he said.

Newton’s friend, Tommy Corral, agreed.

The 20-year-old Corral, whose L.A. Raiders hat covered 20 stitches he received when “someone hit me over the head with something” in a fight, said the mural should be about life in the sometimes-violent community surrounding the center at Harrison Avenue off Ventura Avenue. City officials say the Ventura Avenue Gangsters has about 200 members.

“People around here don’t care about the environment,” Corral said. “They just care about themselves.”

Out on the avenue, members of the gang patrolled the streets on bicycles, unaware of the artistic summit. Theirs is a job of turf protection, sort of an early-warning system when rival gangs show up. Corral waved as they passed.

“What’s up, homeboy?” Corral yelled to a youth holding a bottle of beer.

Graffiti specialists at the Ventura Police Department said they don’t care what the theme of the mural is, as long as the gang stops scribbling on property. Graffiti cleanup in the city is costing taxpayers about $15,000 every three months, an official said.

“Those Ventura Avenue people are painting up the entire city,” said police crime analyst Maxine Mitchell.

Mitchell said painted-on monikers stake out the gang’s territory and provide an unfortunate diversion for youths who have little to do during the summer.

Regional pride is the code, Mitchell said, and when other gangs ignore the painted boundaries, people get killed.

In April, members of the gang traveled to Saticoy to stage a drive-by shooting that claimed the lives of two men, she said.

Last month, members of another gang stabbed an avenue homeboy in retaliation.

“If we had more mural programs, the gang kids would have a way to express their pride lawfully,” Mitchell said.

“It is much nicer than graffiti,” Mitchell said of the mural.

Privately, some of the gang members at the center said they would like to get away from the lifestyle, only they don’t really know how.

With a small stipend from the arts council, Santa Paula teacher Xavier Montez, who teaches a drawing class at the park on Tuesdays and Thursdays, wants to get a handful of the youths interested in drawing. A sign he has posted on the wall reads, “Become Interested in Your Craft and Others Will Respect You.”

“The trick is getting them to choose a craft that’s socially acceptable and legal,” he said.