Murals Help Mask Scars From Graffiti Vandals, Quake

Mural by mural, they’re transforming a two-mile stretch of Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood 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 actor Tim Fields, dozens of teenagers from Encino-based Halcyon Center have been reclaiming 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 gravel, at the rear of the Sunnybrook Farms grocery store at Oxnard Street.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Fields and crew members 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 surface, 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 Field’s painters are novices--clinic volunteers, North Hollywood-area teenagers sentenced to community service in connection with drug or robbery cases, even a movie industry exec or two. The rewarding part of the mural work is what the teenagers 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 nickname “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 his team to businesses for less than a new exterior paint job would cost. Fields receives a $2.50 hourly honorarium and the remainder of the money covers costs of supplies.

The return on the investment 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 to be completed by 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.