An Outsider Finds a Home as the Unofficial Artist of Olvera Street : Landmarks: Former hippie from Washington state is embraced for her portraits of Mexican culture.

The image of joyous Mexican children dancing across the canvas is brought to life by the oil painting’s bold, vigorous color.

So it’s inevitably a surprise to visitors at Olvera Street that the artist who has so skillfully depicted the gay fiesta scene speaks only a smattering of Spanish and has never traveled farther into Mexico than Tijuana.

In fact, for more than two decades, life in Los Angeles’ most recognizable center of Mexican culture has been recorded not by a Latino artist but by a former hippie from Bellingham, Wash., who is of Dutch and Irish descent.

Kalan Brunink’s hand-painted interpretations of Mexican culture have become known throughout the world, reproduced on postcards, posters and T-shirts.

“She’s not a Latina? I’m very surprised,” said visitor Liz Vasquez as she lingered in Olvera Street’s El Pueblo Gallery, where dozens of Brunink’s paintings were on display Friday.

The frolicking children’s costumes and their energy seem authentic, said Vasquez, a Montclair restaurant cashier. “This is really good. It brings back memories of growing up,” she said.

Of the hundreds of merchants on Olvera Street, Brunink is one of only two who are not Latino. Handwriting analyst Ellen Smith is the other, according to those who work at the downtown landmark.

Brunink signs her paintings “Kalan” and is known on the street by her first name. She started out in 1977 as a sketch artist filling in for Olvera Street’s regular caricaturist, Val de Nunez.

Raised in a Pacific Northwest farming community where she says “it still is illegal to dance in public,” Brunink put down her roots on Olvera Street by pure chance.

She was studying art and anthropology at the University of Washington in the early 1970s when she decided to take her college money and travel.

“I was a flower child; I kept moving,” said Brunink, 52. “I stopped in Los Angeles.”

She resumed studying art here and landed a part-time job selling sandwiches. One day a lunchtime customer mentioned that the Olvera Street sketch artist might need a helper.

When de Nunez decided to retire in 1980, city officials in charge of the street gave Brunink an art test before agreeing to rent his 4-foot by 6-foot vine-shaded porch to her.

“They made me sketch Mrs. Sepulveda, a lady from the original Sepulveda family, who was visiting in their office. It was a very personal audition,” Brunink said.

“They wanted to make sure I’d fit in the community, that I was compatible. Being Anglo was a subtle issue. Nobody wanted to hurt my feelings. Businesses on Olvera Street were usually handed down from father to son. But Val didn’t have anyone to take it over.”

Veteran Olvera Street merchants say they weren’t certain at first about Brunink.

“We didn’t know how long she would stay or how she would fit in,” said Mike Mariscal, a shopkeeper whose nearly 70-year-old gift shop has been operated by five generations of family members.

“You have to stand your ground and prove yourself” and Brunink did just that, Mariscal said. “She’s definitely a fixture here and an asset.”

City officials agree. “Olvera Street has grown on Kalan. And she’s grown on Olvera Street,” said Jean Bruce Poole, director of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument.

When the 1994 earthquake destroyed her Hollywood home and delivered an economic battering that caused her to fall behind on the rent for her tiny sketch stall, other merchants found space in their shops for Brunink and her easel. Although she never got her original location back, city officials offered her a recurring place in their El Pueblo Gallery exhibitions.

Her paintings usually sell for $1,200 to $3,000, but Brunink has done portraits for as little as $125 for people such as Olvera Street parking attendants who might not otherwise afford them.

At the gallery last week, Brunink was finishing a 4-foot by 5-foot portrait of Glendale resident Angelica Gudino. The 27-year-old UCLA student agreed to pose after admiring Brunink’s work.

“She’s very fascinated and appreciative of our culture,” said Gudino--who wore a Mexican gown loaned to Brunink by an Olvera Street merchant for the 40-hour modeling session.

Volunteering as a gallery assistant while Brunink painted was Thomas Serrano, an Alhambra paralegal who is a fan of her art.

Serrano said Brunink used to work in blistering summer heat and cold winter rain at her old open-air sketch stand. “She’s paid her dues many times over,” he said.

That’s why Serrano says he is discouraged when some Olvera Street visitors looking for Mexican art “sometimes back away” when they find out that Brunink is not Mexican. “There are rednecks in every race,” Serrano said.

With her current exhibition winding down, Brunink last week was making plans to return to the street’s Casa de Sousa shop. Conchita Cubillo, whose family has run the shop since 1932, when family members came from Mexico, said Brunink is welcome there.

“This is L.A.,” said Cubillo, a Pico Rivera resident who says Brunink “watched me grow up” on Olvera Street. “It’s a melting pot.”

Brunink says she feels accepted.

“They might think of me as the crazy, white painter, but they still love me,” she joked. “They take pity on the white lady.”