Teen Art Transforms Streets Into ‘Gallery’

Mural by mural, they’re transforming a two-mile stretch of North Hollywood’s Vineland Avenue from a series of graffiti-scarred, earthquake-damaged walls and storefronts into an art history textbook’s worth of street art.

Under the tutelage of artist and part-time actor Tim Fields, dozens of teens from the Encino-based Halcyon Center have reclaimed three Vineland sites from taggers’ scrawlings since November.

They first conquered a building at Denny Avenue with the rain-forest themed “Corner of Paradise.” Then came the rendition of the Valley circa 1930, complete with chickens pecking at gravel, at the rear of Sunnybrook Farms grocery store at Oxnard Street.

Over the long Memorial Day weekend, Fields and crew stationed themselves at the Valley Community Clinic at Burbank Boulevard, painting squares of teal, mustard yellow and rust in the style of the French painter Piet Mondrian, best-known for his linear graphic works. On the 100- by 25-foot canvas of siding, they are also painting black-and-white scenes of people using the clinic--a family of four and a girl with glasses reading an optical chart.

Almost all of Fields’ painters are novices--clinic volunteers, North Hollywood-area teens sentenced to community service in connection with drug or robbery cases, even a movie industry executive or two. The great part of the mural work is what the teens get out of it, Fields said.

“The youth in the community are actually changing the community itself, which helps keep the murals free of graffiti,” said Fields, a 10-year mural veteran whose Hollywood Boulevard murals earned him the moniker “Boulevard Da Vinci.” “There’s a street aesthetic toward art where murals get respect. By involving the kids in the community, it’s also their own work, it’s their pride.”

Gloria Gold, who runs the Halcyon Center, offers the services of Fields and team to interested businesses for less than a new exterior paint job would cost. Fields receives a $2.50 hourly honorarium and the rest of the money covers costs of supplies. The investment’s return is immeasurable, Fields said. “Young people just need a chance, some understanding and something to take pride in and the future will be a lot better.”

While finishing touches are put on the Valley Clinic mural--due for completion June 8, the first day of the North Hollywood Arts Festival--Fields and Halcyon already have their eyes on another North Hollywood site: the arts park at Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards.