Street Art Archives - longlistshort

Murals of La Jolla- Roy McMakin

Art, Artists, California Travel, Mixed Media, Places to Visit, San Diego Travel

Dec 062019

Murals of La Jolla is a project started in 2010 by The Athenaeum and the La Jolla Community Foundation. It commissions artists to create work to be displayed on buildings around La Jolla. The works are on view for a minimum of two years (a map of current work here)

The above work is Favorite Color (2010) by Roy McMakin.

From the Murals of La Jolla website regarding this work-

…“The idea was very simple. I have always, since a child, been intrigued at both my own emotions around color preference, and also others. It has been important, and part of my identity to know what my favorite color is. I often recall times that I discussed color with my friends as a child and the talk always centered around preference. And I have found as an adult that most people still enjoy sharing what their favorite color is.”

“My proposal for the wall in La Jolla was to create a visual document of what a somewhat arbitrary group of people, of various ages, etc., choose as their favorite color. I began the process by asking people their favorite color, and then I presented them with a selection of 4 to 6 colors, of which they choose the one that was closest to the color they liked best. For example, if someone said “blue”, then I showed them blue swatches and they chose one. One square was painted that color. I like the idea that this takes place at a certain time, and that the ultimate form of the mural was dictated by the number of folks that showed up.”

This mural is located at 7596 Eads Avenue.

Murals of La Jolla- Fred Tomaselli

Art, Artists, California Street Art, California Travel, Mixed Media, Places to Visit, San Diego Street Art, San Diego Travel, Street Art

Dec 052019

The above work, Expecting to Fly (for the Zeros), 2013, is by Fred Tomaselli and honors Chula Vista based Chicano punk band, The Zeros.

From the Murals of La Jolla website about the work-

It combines cutout images of insects, animals, plants, butterflies, birds, and body parts to create a visionary image of a man falling through space. The title of this work, Expecting to Fly, is the title of a song written by Neil Young and performed by Buffalo Springfield in the late ’60’s. The man falling through space can be read as a crowd surfer, an image that comes out of the Punk Rock movement. One traditional idea of the “sublime” deals with losing oneself to the vastness of the universe. In this case, the crowd-surfer is losing himself to the vast, collectivist “organism” of the crowd. “In this piece I try to find commonalities in the pursuit of a modern sublime that stretch through time and past ideologies”.

This mural is located at 7569 Girard Avenue.