Iconic South Park Mural by Famous Artist, Tagged with Graffiti
South Park is home to several significant murals on building walls throughout the neighborhood. Kobe Bryant murals are well known and visited often. But one mural in South Park is by a world-renowned artist whose work is in the permanent collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and others. In addition, this artist designed the “Hope” poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 U.S. presidential race. Shepard Fairey is the artist, and his mural Defend Dignity has graced a wall on Grand between 11th and Olympic since 2019.
Mural Before Desecration
Defend Dignity is "meant to inspire sensitivity toward our fellow human beings and the planet itself." The central image is a portrait of Maribel Valdez Gonzalez, a Texan of Mexican descent. Fairey worked with photographer Arlene Mejorado who worked on immigrant’s rights, to create this image as "a symbol of hope, dignity, and humanity. The bleeding lotus is a symbol of the beauty and fragility of our planet."
Fairey is quoted, "Los Angeles is a big melting pot with immigrants from tons of different communities, and of course, there’s a very strong Latino presence here. ...it doesn’t matter what your ethnic background is, your country of origin, your skin color. Once you’re in the U.S. and you’re a citizen, you are equally an American and should have access to the American Dream."
Now that mural is an “Oceanwide II.” Only this time, the graffiti has damaged a work of art. The graffiti takes away from the beauty of the mural, it does not show “sensitivity toward” others’ artistic work, it damages the “symbol of hope, dignity, and humanity,” and it does not contribute anything to the neighborhood. What it does show is selfishness that the graffiti is more important than the work of art and a lack of respect for an artist’s work. It is a violation of our neighborhood.
Graffiti is a nuisance crime in South Park. It devalues our neighborhood. Report this crime. Some of the tagging happened in the middle of the afternoon when the tagger arrived with a ladder and paint. See something? Say something! Report graffiti to the South Park Business Improvement District (SPBID) safe team at 866.560.9346 or dispatch@lasocialdistrict.com.
By Debra Shrout