Anyone who has lived in Silver Lake for a while has probably seen the eternally tanned and shirtless Dr. Marc Abrams walking briskly through the neighborhood, head down while reading a folded newspaper. But what is Abrams, aka The Silver Lake Walking Man, doing strolling by the Brown Derby restaurant or through a pack of Victorian-era policemen riding bikes downtown? You will have to ask Silver Lake resident Nicky Gagliarducci. His new Sunset Boulevard mural combines images of Abrams walking from west to east across the landscape and past the landmarks of historic Los Angeles.The 37-year-old painter struggled to find inspiration after Jason Michaud, the owner of Local restaurant, commissioned Gagliarducci to create a mural featuring the Walking Man on the four-foot high, cinder-block wall next to the cafe on Sunset Boulevard near Silver Lake Boulevard (Michaud could not be reached for comment).
"On hearing his request I have to admit it did not set off any creative spark enabling me to quickly jump to any ideas," Gagliarducci said in an email "Initially I put him out of my head and said to myself that 'I'd throw him in there somewhere, somehow.'"
But adding The Walking Man, complete with green trunks and white socks, into the muted historic scenes helped ease a sense of sadness Gagliarducci said he experienced as he worked on images of a city that had disa
ppeared. "A sense of abandonment came over me of how fast L.A. changes and how our city rarely stood by these historic sites and removed or demolished them."Many people stopped by to share stories of The Walking Man during the month Gagliarducci spent painting the 25-foot long mural, which includes city scenes that start in the west along the coast and travel east to downtown. One person who walked by was, not surprisingly, Abrams himself. He even stopped walking to have Gagliarducci take a photo but it's not clear what The Walking Man thought of being immortalized in a mural.
"I would mention to him at times that I was going to add him in the work," Gagliarducci said. "He would just laugh and say, 'Oh come on, you don't want to ruin that beautiful piece of art by putting me in it.'"
Top photo by Kent Bassett (more images on his photo album); bottom photo from Eastside Eye
5 comments:
so awesome!
My friend actually went as the Silver Lake walker for Halloween a few years ago (tan and all). It was amazing!
What?? I came to this site expecting some AUTHENTICITY and some information about LA's real East Side and the first words I read on this page were "Silver" and "Lake??" As an Angeleno born and bred in the real East Side (East LA) I find the REVISIONISTS who are trying to shift the East Side moniker North-WEST to Echo Park, Silver Lake, etc. comically amusing. Most of you didn't even grow up in those communities in the first place and now you are trying to claim that they are something that they are truly not. People like that are a joke, plain and simple.
You guys are doing yourself and all your hipster buddies a great disservice by lying to them and making them think that neighborhoods and districts east of your preset boundaries are virtually non-existent. Having lived in LA most of my life and in NYC for a couple of years, it saddens me that you are further blurring the historical, traditional boundaries in LA to capitalize on a name because you think that it sounds "cool." That's lame.
What's so funny is that he is also featured in the new Micheltorena Street School mural on Sunset (on the Micheltorena & Sunset end). That's what, 1/2 a mile up from this mural? He's wearing the green shorts in this one, too.
hey betomax, why you claiming new york? are you one of those people who "didn't even grow up in those communities in the first place and now you are trying to claim that they are something that they are truly not?" don't worry about it, i'm just playing. i don't think anyone is trying to pretend that Silverlake and Echo Park are as far east as you can get. they're just showing a little pride for where they live. nothing wrong with that. BTW, i think the walking guy is a little weird.
Hey Betomax
Time to take the tinfoil off your head.
No one is trying to take over your beloved "East Side".
Nor are they trying to 'claim' east Los Angeles credentials.
When people around these parts say 'we live on the east side', they are usually referring, geographically speaking, to east of Hollywood. As opposed to to people who live in Venice, Santa Monica etc who refer to their area as 'the west side'.
That's it.
It's all about context. Not about acting like a four year old about who is claiming what boundaries.
With all the other problems going these days, this is what you choose to sit around and stew about?
PS having lived in NYC for many years myself, I don't recall anyone getting worked up over what was the Upper West Side or Williamsburg.
We had better things do.
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The Eastsider LA has little tolerance for profane and hateful comments. Please keep it simple, civil and on topic.