Murals in the Southland

A view of 20 Westminster Ave. last year in Venice with its bright purple side and collection of murals and sculptures.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

A pedestrian makes her way through the rain past the mural by Robert Vargas and Michael Blaze titled “Our Lady of DTLA,” that graces the SB Tower at 6th and Spring streets in downtown Los Angeles in 2014.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Artist Thierry Noir walks along a mural painted on the side of the Howard Griffin Gallery in downtown Los Angeles in 2014.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

A mural on the wall at Club Bahia on the fringe of Echo Park.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

A man walks by a mural along 3rd Street in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles in January.  (Wally Skaij / Los Angeles Times)

Liana Hovhonnisyan enjoys the sunny weather and a walk in Lincoln Park in January near “The Wall-Las Memorias” mural. The mural is one of six that memorialize those who died of AIDS.   (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Artist Jonas Never painted a mural in honor of late ESPN sportscaster Stuart Scott on the rooftop wall of the Melody Bar & Grill near the flight path to LAX in Westchester.   (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Actor Edward James Olmos celebrates the beginning of restoration efforts in 2014 for the 70-foot-tall “Pope of Broadway” mural featuring Anthony Quinn with his arms outstretched over downtown Los Angeles.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Former USC and Los Angeles Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich takes a break from painting his commissioned mural on the side of the GEM Theater in Garden Grove in 2014.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A man passes by Skid Row mural on San Julian Street in Los Angeles in 2014.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Carlos Rogel, project director for the Social and Public Art Research Center, uses a pressure washer last year to remove spider nests from the “Great Wall of Los Angeles” mural that spans a half mile section of the Tijunga Wash in Valley Village.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Timesl)

A man walks past a mural on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles last year.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Tony Davia, left, takes a photo with Lucas Connor, both bandmates from Laguna Beach, in front of a mural on the Santa Fe Building at 539 S. Los Angeles Street in downtown L.A., created by the artist Young & Sick for the band Foster the People.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

A man walks by the “A Banda,” mural by internationally recognized Brazilian artist Nunca in 2014. It covers the side of a building in Coachella, about three hours south of Los Angeles.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Artist Kim West paints “Ode to Bohemia,” her fifth mural in Los Angeles in 2014.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Visitors to Chicano Park in 2014 view dozens of murals painted on the concrete stanchions leading to and from the Coronado Bridge.   (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Muralist EyeMax dons a sombrero as shield from the sun while creating spray paint art in the garment district of Los Angeles in 2009.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

A giant mural depicts the diversity and activities of Long Beach near the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue in 2014.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A mural with an Asian theme decorates the exterior of a Japanese restaurant in downtown Los Angeles in 2013.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Virginia Panizzon, working with Save Freeway Murals in 2011, touches up Kent Twitchell’s 1984 mural of art teacher Jim Morphesus. The mural, located along the Hollywood Freeway below the Grand Street overpass, had been defaced by graffiti.  (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

A pedestrian walks up the ramp of the train station on Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles in front of a mural on the loading area of MOCA Contemporary in 2011.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

A pedestrian walks by a mural of Charlie Chaplin in Los Feliz in 2011.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)