ArcaMax

Pablo Picasso once said, "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." When we travel, it is often to escape our daily existence and to luxuriate in new places, people and cultures. In Southern California, taking a walking tour of the Murals of La Jolla is a perfect way to let an eclectic array of different art styles wash away your everyday-life dust.

Celebrating 15 years since its inception in 2010, Murals of La Jolla is an ongoing public arts project under the umbrella of the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library. Today a guided tour or leisurely stroll following a map of locations takes you to 16 murals on display in La Jolla's downtown commercial area, each adorning the wall of a building --from banks and corner stores to apartment blocks and coastal structures where the giant murals blend into the Pacific Ocean and the horizon beyond.

Artist John Baldessari's mural of a brain-shaped cloud levitating above a palm tree in a pale, otherwise cloudless sky over a still cerulean blue ocean blends perfectly into the real-life sea and the sky beyond it. Another marine motif mural by Chitra Ganesh is curiously absorbing and vibrantly festive. It features a modern mermaid wearing an elephant trunklike snorkel mask, a bird on a branch protruding from her shoulder, a coyote howling on her lap, and a UFO and butterfly flitting across its sky.

Three big birds adorn Gail Werner's three-panel naturescape mural down a long wall above a row of parking. The pale colors are a stark contrast to the mostly gray, silver, white and black of the vehicles parked below.

Another, by June Edmonds, showcases curving stripes of loud, bold colors wending their way up the sides of a corner building tower. Then there's a whimsical William Wegman signature Weimaraner dog, artistically tearing through the giant "canvas" of a block-long, canary yellow, windowless wall.

No matter what your taste in art, or if you just want to enjoy a colorful way to explore La Jolla's downtown, there is, as they say, something for everyone. The goal of the murals project is to constantly evolve with a changing art dynamic, explained Taylor Chapin, Murals of La Jolla's executive director.

"A lot of the sites we've had since the early days of the project," she said, "with three or four murals at the same location every three or so years."

Each mural is fully funded by different Athenaeum membership levels, plus a wall sponsorship for the duration the mural is on display. Chapin explains that whereas the murals were initially painted directly onto the walls, today a vinyl billboard technology is used to make installations of the artwork and switching them out an easier and smoother process.

Over the last 15 years, an Athenaeum art advisory committee has commissioned 50 murals by local, national and international artists. And while all are temporary and intended to rotate every few years, some have had more longevity than others. Chapin says Baldessari's brain cloud mural, for example, is such a beloved and widely embraced mural that it has graced the same site since 2011.

Today three murals are painted directly onsite and 13 use the vinyl billboard technology engineered specifically, Chapin said, to allow the project to feature artists with a diverse range of technique and practice. Each mural is a new work, the result of asking the selected artists to create specific pieces responding to the sites where they'll be featured.

"The property owners allow us to select the artist and the piece," Chapin said. "They have trust in us that the mural art will enhance their walls and bring life and color to these in-between architectural spaces. They support the murals as such a fantastic way for visitors and locals to experience La Jolla's commercial district, bolstering our downtown-life experience through a contemporary art lens."

I asked Chapin if she has a current favorite, and she answered -- as any art project director would, spreading equal love -- "I like them all for different reasons. With some, I have a personal connection to the artist. With others, I just love the artist's work and creative style."

My personal favorite? Baldessari's ephemeral "brain cloud" floating over the real palm trees and the Pacific. Or Terry Allen's playful giant hands poised over a brick wall's keyboard.

Then I turn a street corner and find another favorite, then another, as I leisurely stroll the mural sites at my own pace, pausing to ponder the artworks, window-shop along La Jolla's boutique-lined streets, and enjoy a margarita and a view of the ocean, basking in Southern California's famously long-lasting autumn sun.

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WHEN YOU GO

Visit ljathenaeum.org to download a murals map with information about each work and artist. Or register for a free guided walking tour, offered the fourth Wednesday of every month at 5:30 p.m. March through October and the second and fourth Wednesdays in June, July and August.

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Nicola Bridges is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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