iT'S STreeT arT THurSDay! with Malibu morning picture of the day - Thursday, May 7, 2015

Dear Street Art Lovers, Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

Parev! Yes it's time for this week's featured work from East Holly. Tell the kiddies to turn out for this one because the imagery is a little strong .... this is on Hollywood Blvd. between Alexandria and Normandie.

Artists: AVA (Art via Art), 1915 Our Wounds Are Still Open, paint on brick.

My part of town goes by many names, but the most prominent one is "Little Armenia." In fact, I like to say I am a Little Armenian. And I would not be worthy of the being a Little Armenian if I did not acknowledge art that observes the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Empire against the Armenian people in 1915. This mural (and at least one other nearby to it) recognize this harsh remembrance.

Here are two details off to the left and then to the right, and then at the end is as much as I could get stepping off the curb into the street without getting run over.

When I first looked at this work I wondered why the artist put the "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" here, thinking that was way too hipster ironic. Of course, it was not the Xmas tree... This is the image of a withered pomegranate, yet producing fruit, watered by the blood of the victims. The clenched first holds tight to the cross of the Armenian Apostolic Christian faith.

Here is the detail to the right. It's rather telling that the wounded person is holding the knife the created the fresh opening in the flesh.

The 1915 genocide is a defining event to the identity and psychology of nearly every Armenian American I have met since I was a child. The generations that suffered and survived have nearly all passed away, but the descendants keep the memory fresh. I think the ethnically binds them and it certainly has its effect. Armenians know they are Armenian similar to the way that East Asians self-identify, but East Asians self-identify because the majority culture segregates them out, like they do Latinos and blacks.

The whole thing in street context ...

Armenians could probably easily weave into the American ethnicity like Italians and Irish have most recently of immigrant groups, but they seem to have not done so, and it seems purposeful. They have Armenian language and culture schools like the Chinese and Japanese and the Jews. I never knew any white kid who said he couldn't play after school because he had to go to Gaelic School or Sicilian School.

Wow, I just noticed I've done nothing but introduce "downer" topics in this blog all week (even found a way to make a Mickey Mouse birthday cake depressing...). The ole boy must have mortality on the brain. A death in the family will do that to you.


AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED MALIBU MORNING PICTURE(S) OF THE DAY!

The clouds have ceded their dominance to the open sky today. Does that make you feel better? No? That's OK. Sometimes we just need to feel icky.

Love,
Pops