21 Comments
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Grant Cogswell's avatar

Beautiful. Is that the Arts District? Didn’t exist when I fled the city 35 years ago. Conniving to return ASAP love what it’s become

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Julia Sweeney's avatar

Yes, it is the Arts District. The tour guide, Kevin, was very cynical about how they have been taking over the warehouses where artists were living and turning them into expensive condos. But between you and me, I like the condos! They are really cool looking and the whole area seemed vibrant and edgy and fun. I would live there. I was wishing my daughter wanted to live there, but she doesn't. ANYWAY. Yes, come back Grant! It's lovely here.

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Lisa Guerrero's avatar

Love this Julia! A couple of years ago I went out with a graffiti artist in New York for an Inside Edition investigation. He took me all over the city and explained the meaning of various tags and art. Fascinating! Thanks for the gorgeous video ❤️

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Julia Sweeney's avatar

Lisa, I am so honored that you would watch my videos. YOU! You who know this terrain better than anyone I know! I love your date with the graffiti artist. Doesn't knowing all the messages and all the styles make it all so different? I still wish it wasn't everywhere, but it is more interesting to me now that I know more about it.

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Lisa Guerrero's avatar

❤️❤️❤️

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foglight's avatar

love this! there are lots of gorgeous murals in the mission district of san francisco but i've never done an official tour cuz i live here, gotta change that. of the murals you showed, my favorite: the little girl holding her dad's face - was she stretching his lips into a smile?

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Julia Sweeney's avatar

That's Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna - I believe - who was killed with him in the helicopter crash on 1-26-20. I just read the Wikipedia entry to get her name right, and I didn't know that the helicopter had circled low over the L.A. Zoo, and the pilot was told he was flying too low for radar to pick them up. I wonder if they were doing that for Gianna. I have no idea, of course. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant#Death Ugh. So, so, so sad.

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Mindy's avatar

Super cool. Thank you.

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Carol Smithson's avatar

OMG! I love this. I totally want to do it. Is it the DTLA graffiti and mural tour listed at laarttours.com?

I did an amazing street art tour of the Shoreditch neighborhood in London in 2019 and would love to do one in LA. I can't believe I didn't think there'd be one here!

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Julia Sweeney's avatar

Yes, that is the one. Our tour guide was Kevin. He was great, didn't mind his name being out there, but not his face. He also owns LAArtTours. But he said he is mostly not the guide, so we lucked out I guess. Anyway, I recommend it highly.

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Carol Smithson's avatar

Thank you!

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Sally's avatar

I loved this, thanks a million. Your music selection is spot-on.

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Eve Keller's avatar

Thank you for showing us L.A. mural art. As for graffiti, I am with you 100%. Defacing an object that is of service to the broader community, like a street sign, for me shows the degradation of civic understanding and responsibility in our culture today.

My neighborhood organization sponsored local artists to crate a mural on a HUGE four sided fence in the Mt. Baker light rail station in south Seattle. We asked the artists to work with Franklin High School students, a school located across the street and whose kids ride the rail to school daily, to teach them the skills needed to create this mural, and to foster a rich civic experience. The H.S. kids were also paid for their time. City officials came to our event celebrating the finished fence mural.

During the pandemic, 'crew' after 'crew' defaced this beautiful fence with unimaginative, very dull graffiti, in my opinion, and returned the light rail station to looking like a bombed out area. The mural artists were street artists, and neighbors, so I remain astounded by these acts of defacement in this central place in the community. Beauty serves us all, but ego based actions, not so much. My two cents.

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Julia Sweeney's avatar

Eve, I completely agree with you. It's so frustrating to have graffiti ruin things that were lovingly decorated. The worst! I do notice the graffiti here more than I did before the tour. There is so much it has become white noise for me.

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Mimi Nolan's avatar

Amazing !

Zest for life - that’s you Julia !

Great murals and graffiti🖼️

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Eye candy! Brain candy!

If you haven't seen the Orozco murals at Dartmouth yet (for some reason!), please check them out - the really wide mural painted on the bricks (with the guns and such) immediately made me think of Orozco and his subversive, sneaky murals he got an Ivy League school to permanently display. That's pretty punk rock, when you think about it.

So are these.

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Julia Sweeney's avatar

I have not seen those murals, but I am such a mural fan. I will keep it in mind if I'm ever in the Dartmouth area.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Julia, if you are so inclined, here's a virtual tour (not the same, to be sure, but I'm not gonna be anywhere near New Hampshire any time soon): https://bit.ly/3qJUnr0

Do NOT go into the room marked "Staff Only"!

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Amanda Murphy's avatar

Thank you for that Julia. Watching LA street art video at 5am, nothing better. Good music choice too.

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Julia Sweeney's avatar

Thanks Amanda!

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Reine's avatar

Julia, thank you so much. I hadn’t known about the different types of them or the ones being unique and standing up to look and admire each and other’s work.

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