Sunset Mural Painted by Students Unveiled

Just a few months ago, it was little more than a gray, graffiti-scarred tunnel. Thanks to the work of several dedicated artists, however, the San Diego Freeway’s Plummer Street underpass has been transformed into a brightly colored desert sunset.

On Friday morning, the artwork was unveiled in a ceremony that drew effusive praise from Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

“I have behind me the real heroes of this city,” Riordan told the assembled crowd, acknowledging the students from Sepulveda Middle School who helped recreate artist Candice Ocampo’s design in two 7-by-144-foot murals.

“You’re truly angels in the City of Angels.”

The $6,000 project was initiated by the Community Police Advisory Board of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division as a way “to get rid of graffiti and make people in the neighborhood feel good about themselves and where they live,” Riordan said.

An underwater scene painted beneath Nordhoff Street was the first such project initiated by the advisory board.

A third mural will be completed beneath Parthenia Street in the next three weeks, said Capt. Vance Proctor, Devonshire Division’s commanding officer.

Funding for the desert murals was provided from several sources, including Mad About Rising Crime, the California Wellness Foundation and City Councilman Richard Alarcon’s office.

For 12-year-old Anthony Paniagua, who hopes to pursue a career as a comic book artist, it was a chance to apply his talents to a canvas that thousands of passersby will glimpse in years to come.

For Ocampo, the result may be the most widely seen work of her career.

“It was very rewarding,” she said, noting the positive responses the artists’ received from passing drivers.

“They would go by and honk. It was inspiring.”

The most enjoyable part, however, was working with a group of young people who couldn’t wait to start painting each day. “The community should be proud of them,” she said. “There’s a source of talent that’s really untapped.”