I have a habit of being nosy. I also have a habit of putting off somethings. Everyday, I drive by a building with a scarecrow painted on the wall. I love the look of it, and sometimes hope for a little back up in traffic, so I can look at it longer. For the past 4 years, every time I drive past the wall I think, “I really should take some photos of that.” One day…
This morning, I was going to drive over near Chinatown to take pictures of graffiti under a bridge. I’ve been meaning to shoot that one almost 6 years. On my way, I decided to go past my scarecrow. Then decided to get out of the car and snap off a few pictures. I stood there, looking at this building, and saw something I had never noticed from the car: the entire building was covered in graffiti. Not only that, but the one building was actually two buildings.
I’m nosy…remember.
I did a u-turn to find the entrance to the compound. I knew that sometimes these places are locked up tight and often, even when I’m shooting them for work, I get hassled. Today, I got doubly lucky. The people inside the business were more than happy to allow me to shoot the art on the walls. They told me that the artists come in and ask if they can grab a spot. The building owner is aware of the artwork on the walls. This makes for a very wonderful relationship between all three groups.
The work inside the compound is amazing, even more impressive than just the scarecrow. If you visit El Sereno and have a chance to see these in person, I highly suggest you do so. Otherwise, you can look at what I shot, today. There are a lot more pieces on the wall, but I think this is a nice sample.
And no…I never did make it over to Chinatown. One day…
The Stopping to smell the roses… by Anika Malone, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.