TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Santa Monica, California: Mural on Stewart Street "Pico Neighborhood"

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Santa Monica, California: Mural on Stewart Street "Pico Neighborhood"

The City of Santa Monica in California has a number of murals, including the California Heritage Museum, Main Street Farmers Market, Ten Women Co-operative, A Whale of a mural, Unbridled, and many more. Here are sites related to Santa Monica's outdoor art: Art Tour of Santa Monica and an Art Trek map.

One of the murals in Santa Monica is titled, "The History of the Pico Neighborhood", on Stewart Street, along the underpass of Santa Monica Freeway. It was created by the artist Ann Elizabeth Thiermann, whom I knew and who had asked me to pose for this mural project. She took pictures of me and my son, which she used as the model for the "woman with baby" image on the mural.

The mural is still there. The image does not really represent an accurate one of me and my son, but every time I drive by, I remember that period of my life.

Ann also did a pastel portrait of my sons (2 out or 3 at the time), shown below.

Since then, Ann has moved from Santa Monica to Northern California, and I have not seen her for a while, although a few years ago, she touched up the pastel portrait of my sons. When I met Ann she was an emerging artist, and it seems that she is now quite established, as a muralist, landscape, and portrait artist.