LEVI PONCE

Painting Pacoima - McDonlad's Feature

Quick story and interviews with locals

FIghting For Better - Modelo

Fighting For Better campaign featuring Levi

Timelapse at Venice Beach

Luminaries Mural at Venice Beach

Istanbul, Turkey

Mural Istanbul Festival

Album cover for Columbia Records - Zhu

Album cover design for ZHU's Generation Why

Timelapse - Pacoima

La Lady Liberty

Timelapse of Rembrandt Mural

Located at Continental Arts Supply in Reseda

The Bradley Avenue intersection offers plenty of reasons to keep your foot on the gas pedal: In the first week of August, the area saw three vehicle thefts, a robbery and a burglary. The San Fernando Gardens housing project, claimed by gangs and drug dealers, is a block down the street.

But on this afternoon, muralist Levi Ponce is giving motorists a reason to rubberneck.

It takes mettle to work under the scorching San Fernando Valley sunshine, but not even an epic heat wave that hit the West Coast this 4th of July weekend stopped a cadre of muralists from completing their mission: to finish a mural on the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue in Pacoima. They had been there as early as six in the morning, only to retire as the sun sets, getting as much done as they could.

On Pacoima’s Van Nuys Boulevard, muralists have converted walls previously whitewashed to remove graffiti into massive canvases showcasing elaborate works of art. Now, to help preserve these urban treasures along a stretch affectionately dubbed Mural Mile, the Museum of the San Fernando Valley’s Public Art Initiative is offering a walking tour of 15 of these colorful community vistas from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

North Hollywood – They’re hard to miss. From North Hollywood and Canoga Park, to Lake View Terrace and Reseda – the Valley is full of Levi Ponce’s large, vivid murals.

No open space seems to be off limits for the 27-year-old Pacoima native. Car dealerships, restaurants and a boxing academy are some of the locations that bear the artist’s creations.

Since December 2011, Ponce has been the self-funded artistic anchor for a mural movement in the eastern San Fernando Valley. It's a task he assigned himself while he was sitting at home during a slow time of year. An independent contract artist who works in animation and as a commercial sign painter, when business was quiet, he became restless.

PACOIMA - Levi Ponce wants art to pop from the plain brick walls of businesses that line busy Van Nuys Boulevard.

On those walls, he envisions the faces of community heroes, bold images that define the present struggles of the neighborhood, and scenes of proud moments in the history of a people.

"I want to bring art to people who are underexposed to it," said Ponce, 24, an animation artist and muralist. "I want to make Pacoima a prominent voice in the arts."

If you virtually cruise down Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima on Google Maps, you'll see a few hand-painted storefronts but mostly blank façades. That was Pacoima back in 2011. Since then, the town's main drag has flowered with new fine-art murals, earning the moniker "Mural Mile" and attracting throngs of walking and biking tours. Artist Levi Ponce has mapped out the 20-plus old and new murals. They include his own Born in East Valley...