SUN VALLEY : Mural Artists Undaunted by Vandal’s Attack

Just about every day for two months, a group of Sun Valley teen-agers took up paint brushes and set to work on a wall, learning lessons of art from a master.

But last week, the lesson became a lesson of pain--delivered by either a bottle or balloon filled with a thick black paint that exploded across two panels of the mural, splattering a stagecoach and a scene of the early Spanish missions.

“It hurts so much inside,” said Stephen Valenzuela Jr., a 15-year-old who goes to Van Nuys Middle School. He brought his sister to San Fernando Road to proudly show off the mural and instead found it vandalized. “But you just set that aside and keep on painting.”

For Joe Gonzalez, a nationally known artist hired by the Sun Valley Community Venture Council to create the mural as a symbol of a new community spirit, it was the first time in 37 years that someone had damaged one of his works.

But still the painting goes on, the black paint has been sanded off and the repairs continue. When painting started in early April, Gonzalez guessed that it would take about three months to finish. But he had not counted on the feverish pace the dozen students would set, painting even between bites of sandwiches when they could have been taking breaks.

Even with the damage, the project is well ahead of schedule and a dedication ceremony is tentatively planned within the next two weeks.

The painting will be the last for artist Frank Martinez, a 70-year-old native of Sun Valley who Gonzalez asked to design the Sun Valley mural, but he will look on it as his best.

“I’m proud of this one, no kidding, I’m really proud of it,” Martinez said. The pride comes not so much from the mural itself, but from the knowledge it has implanted in the teen-agers.

“This is our future,” Martinez said of the youths. “Because each and every one has his own idea of what art is all about, what we do here will not have been in vain.”

The Sun Valley Community Venture Council looks at the project--which is in view of both passing Metrolink trains and the nearby Golden State Freeway--as a way to attract attention to the long-neglected community.

“Art heals,” said Jan Liptak, head of the Sun Valley Community Venture Council. “I think art is the one common thing to all of us.”

Liptak had been searching for an artist to lead the project last year and found many who were not willing to work within the project’s $10,000 budget. She had called the Goez Art Gallery in East Los Angeles looking for another artist when Joe Gonzalez answered the phone. He immediately offered to help.

Many of the teen-agers have been drawn to the project because of Gonzalez’s reputation. “When they told me it was him, I jumped right in,” said Al Saldivar, 15. “Every day you show up here you learn something new.”