The Big Picture : Russian Immigrant Paints Bright ‘Future’ in Gang-Infested Neighborhood

Artist Zinovy Shersher is accustomed to painting in a quiet studio, with classical music playing softly in the background at his suburban North Hollywood townhouse. The last showing of his oil paintings and pastels was at a Beverly Hills art gallery.

Shersher, a Russian immigrant, encountered a different artistic ambience when he volunteered to paint a mural in the Aliso-Pico area of Boyle Heights. Shortly after he began the mural, a gang called the Mob Crew began firing semi-automatic weapons at several members of the East L.A. 13 Dukes who were helping Shersher. He was caught in the middle.

“The dude was tripping out,” said Frank (Kiko) Hernandez, who lives in a neighboring housing project. “He didn’t know what was happening. But he came back to finish the mural. Everybody appreciated that.”

Shersher, who dedicated the mural Friday at a community gathering, donated his time because he recently became an American citizen and he wanted to contribute something to his new country, he said. And because Boyle Heights was once populated by many newly arrived Russian Jews, Shersher said he feels an affinity for the neighborhood.

The enormous mural at the Aliso-Pico Community Center covers a wall that had been “tagged” by graffiti for years. Now, instead of a tan, stucco wall spray-painted with the names of gangs and gang members, there is a mural that traces the history of Boyle Heights and features large portraits of heroes in the Latino community. A number of residents of the nearby housing projects, including several gang members, helped Shersher paint the mural,

The gang members who worked on the mural risked their lives to help Shersher, said Johnny Odom, director of the Aliso-Pico Community Center. They congregated in an open space for hours, with their backs to 1st Street--a very vulnerable position. The north side of 1st Street is East L.A. 13 Dukes territory; the south side is the turf of the Mob Crew.

“Maybe because of the danger, this mural is more important,” Shersher said. “The mural represents just the opposite of what gang problems are all about. The title is: ‘We Have a Future.’ ”

The Aliso-Pico neighborhood has four housing projects and 10 warring gangs. But since Shersher began painting the mural in May, it has been tagged only once, Odom said. This is a record for a wall in the neighborhood, he said. The wall has been left alone by gang members partly because the mural has a large portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an important spiritual symbol in the Latino community. But the wall is also respected because it represents hope for the neighborhood, Odom said.

“Every day, when people saw that wall and all that graffiti, they were reminded of all the problems in their neighborhood,” said Odom. “But now they see something that shows them the positive aspects of their neighborhood and their heritage.”

Before Shersher began painting the mural, he and workers at the community center went door-to-door and asked residents what they wanted on the wall. Shersher incorporated their requests into his design. The mural features the Aztec calender, Mayan pyramids and an old Boyle Heights synagogue and includes portraits of actor Edward James Olmos, who is from East Los Angeles; Father Greg Boyle, a neighborhood priest who is known for his work with gang members, and Martin Luther King Jr.

A number of community groups donated money for the 2,000-square-foot mural, one of the largest in East Los Angeles. In a community where there is so much blight and hopelessness, a splash of color on a wall is a symbol to residents that someone cares about them, said Lavinia Limon, who heads the agency that operates the Community Center.

“It is rare that people in the community have something new and beautiful to look at,” Limon said. “This mural means a lot to them.”