MURAL PAINTING
IN LOS ANGELES
Susan Krieg painted more than
two dozen murals during her
6-year stay in Los Angeles
Murals are more than just a visual Band-Aid to cover up an unsightly structure or make a blighted neighborhood look somewhat more pleasant – murals are about creating community. Knowing this, many larger cities, such as Los Angeles, make various grant monies, and percent of new construction monies, available to community groups and artists. It usually begins with a few people who want to make their community, their school, or a public facility look more attractive. The painstaking process of getting permission from private property owners, finding the financial resources and the artistic talent, and acquiring the city’s permission and the necessary permits makes the difference between a legal mural and graffiti. There are also differences between “political” murals and “educational” murals. Political murals are intended to make a defiant statement for the community. Educational murals serve less defiant and more beautifying and informative purposes.
Susan Krieg has been the artistic resource for more than two dozen educational murals during her six-year stay in Los Angeles. Involving community members and school children in painting the murals has helped to give pride of ownership to both those directly involved in the painting process and those that live in the neighborhood. In “Fruits of Our Dreams,” UCLA students and San Fernando High School students researched the history and people of their community of Pacoima. The results were then designed into a flowing integrated statement by the artist. In several nutrition murals, paid for by the USDA, elementary school children were asked to create drawings on what they had learned about nutrition – Susan then turned the many elements into one visual image. Teaching the children the basic techniques of color rendering and shadowing allowed many the chance to excel in a creative way that is so often missing from public education today.
Specifically for beautification purposes, Susan Krieg managed the Hollywood Walk of Fame Doors Project (phase II), in which 40 roll-up security doors on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame were painted with celebrity images. Working between the hours of 9 pm and 4 am, when stores were closed, Susan and her team of about six artists painted 40 doors in a two-month period.
Several building façade improvements, exemplified by “Boots with Attitude” and “Electric Whimsy,” were carried out by Susan in North Hollywood. “I give a lot of credit to shop keepers who spend the extra money and are daring enough to do something artistic on their place of business.”
Susan Krieg’s mural paintings in Los Angeles,
Susan Krieg painting Liberace on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame
Boots With Attitude
Work Boot Warehouse
by Susan Krieg
Available Only at Susan Krieg’s Store:
• Textured Fruit Paintings
• Floral prints
• ‘Little Jewels’ series
• New 'Aspects' series prints
SUSAN KRIEG describes
how she creates her MIXED-MEDIA COLLAGE PAINTINGS
