Venice

Venice Reconstituted is a frenetic pop-surrealistic portrait of the Venice Boardwalk in 1989. It is a parody not only of the Botticelli masterpiece, the Birth of Venus, but of the earlier Venice pavillion mural, Venice on the Half Shell. Parody provides a way to interface popular culture and art history. In the process, each validates the other as relevant in contemporary society. The ideals and values implied in the mural Venice Reconstituted are substantiated as the extension of a larger historical process that includes Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

The Steel Doors Mural Project included three graffiti murals of mine as well as the art work of over twenty local artists and graffiti writers. The artwork was chosen by the artists and painted after-hours on the security roll-up doors of beachfront businesses along the Venice Boardwalk. The project was organized and supervised by me and sponsored by a local civic group, the Venice Action Committee. The project was well received and successfully incorporated outsider art and artists into the mainstream Venice community.

War Game, 1990, part of the “Steel Doors Mural Project”.

Venice Reconstituted, 1989, 21’h x 100’w. SPARC commission, assistants: Juan Burgueno Jr, Elizabeth Tenchavez, Bruce Smith, Dimitree Kadiev and Mishell Caldwell.

Venice on the Half Shell, 1981.

Art patron Werner Scharff requested I paint a trompe l'oeil mural that included a portrait of the artist at work. This is a popular theme in mural art, so I decided to give it a twist. In the composition, the building front is painted from the perspective of the viewer on the boardwalk. This is the first of three overlapping illusions. In the second, the artist is painted defacing the mural with the graffiti tag of "Venice". The third trompe l'oeil reality is a set of windows painted as if looking out from the wall. These match an existing set of windows within the picture plane. Passersby unravel the overlapping realities as they approach the location.

Venice Beach, 1990, 38’h x 33’w.

1/91: First Burp, 8’ x 9’, Ocean Front Walk, Venice, CA.

1/91: Morning Shot, 12’ x 35’, Speedway, Venice, CA.

12/90: Venice Beach, 33’ x 38’, Ocean Front Walk, Venice, CA.

11/90: Riptide, 22’ x 40’, Ocean Front walk, Venice, CA.

8/90: Situational Ethics, 8’ x 20’, Ocean Front Walk, Venice CA.

7/90: Venice Cop, 9’ x 4’, Wavecrest Ave., Venice, CA.

7/90: Ocean Swell, 11’ x 35’, Clubhouse Ave., Venice, CA.

4/90: War Game, 9 panels, 500 sq. ft., Ocean Front Walk, Venice, CA.

3/90: Homage to a Starry Knight, 17’ x 37’, Ocean Front Walk, Venice.

7/89: Venice Reconstituted, 21’ x 100’, assistants: Juan Burgueno Jr,

Elizabeth Tenchavez, Bruce Smith, Dimitree Kadiev and Mishell

Caldwell, located at Speedway and Windward Ave., Venice.

6/89: Lost Art, 22’ x 22’, Windward Ave., Venice, CA.

4/81: Venice on the Half Shell, 8’ x 12’, Venice Pavilion, Venice, CA.

Early Venice Murals: 4/81 - 1/91

The mural creates a matrix between community and outside world. Through the microcosm of an idealized event, the outside world recognizes the universality of the human experience. While the subject matter of the mural expresses community ideals to outsiders, inwardly it works as an initiating symbolic experience for assimilation into the community. The encounter with the mural bonds the local audience with shared ideals and values. The public mural has become an important source for the aesthetic symbolism that enlivens cultural mythology. The mural provides the orienting experiences of culture at a time when many of the traditional sources of aesthetic symbolism have lost their ability to inspire an audience.

Ocean Swell, 1990, 11’h x 35’w.

Homage to a Starry Knight, 1990, 17’h x 37’w.

Venice Cop, 1990.

The trompe l’oeil painting creates a more convincing illusion than a photograph. We never mistake the photographic image for the real thing, but the hyperrealistic painting repeatedly pulls the viewer into perceptual confusion that leaves him pondering the nature of perceived reality. The trompe l’oeil painting evokes a stronger identification with the subject matter because it is more anthropomorphic. It enlivens the viewer experience as it focuses attention on the interface between realism and abstraction, and on the myth of objectivity that supports our perception of reality.

Lost Art, 1989, 22’h x 22’w.

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