Although most people wouldn’t know it, murals have been banned in Los Angeles for over 11 years.
For the longest time, even L.A. councilmembers, like Jose Huizar, had no idea.
It wasn’t until a priest from Assumption Elementary School in Boyle Heights called his office livid that he learned about it. The school was cited because of a mural on its walls.
“It was about butterflies, flowers, kids reading,” Huizar said. “Positive things you would like to see [on a school].”
The mural was put up to encourage reading and to discourage graffiti, which was plaguing the wall before the mural was painted.
How did L.A.’s mural laws allow a situation like this to happen?
Through the 1980s, when many people considered to be L.A.’s prime in terms of street art through the late 1980s, corporations began copying artists’ work.
The only difference is they put logos on it.
The city got so many complaints from residents who didn’t want L.A. to look like the movie Bladerunner, said Kent Twitchell, famed L.A. muralist.
Under the law at the time, murals were in the same category as commercial advertising.
“The sign companies got censored, they think," said Eric Bjorgum, intellectual property attorney. "And they said ‘Well, look at all these murals. You’re not censoring them. Why are you censoring us?"
The city faced increasing litigation from advertising companies when the city took their ads down, but allowed other murals to remain.
Then came 2002 when the city finally decided to ban both and end the debate there.
“An awful lot of the young muralists coming up were stopped from painting on their own homes,” said Twitchell, who painted the L.A. Chamber Orchestra downtown. “There was a whole generation lost.”
It wasn’t until last year that the city finally decided to update the law and allow muralists to paint legally in the city.
Councilmembers hope that by creating a safe haven for street artists, they will be able to change L.A.’s landscape.
For some people, though, it’s a lot more important than just having beautiful things to look at.
“I recall as a young boy walking down the streets [of Boyle Heights] getting a history lesson [from murals] about things I didn’t necessarily get in the classroom,” said Huizar.
Councilmember Jose Huizar’s district, which includes downtown’s Arts District, has by far the most murals out of all of the rest of L.A.’s council districts.
“I remember I would spend times in Estrada Courts, a public housing project in Boyle Heights, and all the beautiful murals there and looking at them and being proud of my culture, bring proud of who I am.”
“L.A. murals speak about who we are,” said Isabel Rojas, director of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. “They’re the history of our city.”
The ordinance is considered a big step forward for artists who were uncomfortable creating new work, even if commissioned by building owners.
Artists will now be able to register their work with the city.
They’ll also be protected against building owners who try to take them down illegally.
“When some art gets destroyed, it basically affects the artist’s whole reputation,” said Bjorgum. “It’ s like having something knocked off your resume.”
Supporters of the law hope this will lead to a flourishing of public art in L.A.
But it may not be so easy as just changing the law. Muralists and their works are threatened everyday by vandalism.
Mere seconds is all it takes for someone with a spray-can to destroy a project that took months, even years to create.
And unless artists are aware of the new law and take the time to register their work with the city, it won’t make much of a difference.
So for now, the future of L.A. isn’t necessarily written on the wall.
“Before I even knew Allison, I was eating at this restaurant and they had her paintings up. I was like, this is the art of my dreams.” - Celeste Perez
“Allison stands out from the other artists here because she hustles way harder than anyone else. In terms of being the most successful artist of the bunch, Allison is far and above the rest of our artists.”
“I was one and half years old when I started. Ever since I was a kid I was always inspired by graffiti, but it’s such a male-dominated industry or scene.” - Hueman (Allison Torneros)
“I’m sure that people have a hard time taking her seriously sometimes because of the fact that she’s a woman. Especially in street art, there’s this kind of agro-mentality. This aggression. This violence. That’s a part of the graffiti community. And I think that women are perceived as not being able to duke it out with the men.”
“I do, like, get treated differently. I have to carry myself in a certain way so that I’m respected. It’s tough pursuing art full-time. But I think when you jump into something like this like completely you have no choice but to make it work.” - Hueman
“She’s good at what she does. It doesn’t like superficial. It doesn’t look commercial... ever.” - Perez
“I kind of went through a depression, like, a rough patch, at one point. I was always staying inside all day, and always behind my computer, not making art. And I literally felt like a robot. And, so, to snap out of, I guess, my depression, I would say, ‘I’m human, not a robot. I’m human, not a robot.’ And so that one day when I decided, you know, I’m going to start painting on walls, I felt human.” - Hueman