The Temescal Canyon historical mural needs to be restored.
Cathy Salser spoke to the Pacific Palisades Community Council on July 25 about the mural on Temescal Canyon Road that needs restoration.
To refurbish the nearly 500-foot mural across from the Palisades High School Stadium will cost about $105,000. So far about half that amount has been donated and all residents are invited to be part of the project.
In 1983, two Palisades High School students Kat Kozik and David Strauch received permission from the City of Los Angeles to paint a mural of the evolving history of Pacific Palisades, starting with its first people. Fellow students Cathy Salser and Jennifer Wilsey joined them.
The foursome and then Kozik on her own, painted the mural from 1983 to 1990. The mural focuses on the land, animals and first people, and then shifts to a scene depicting the Milky Way, the cosmos and a trickster coyote leaping into the great beyond.
The Temescal Canyon Association sponsored a team of artists in 2002 and 2008, that included Terri Bromberg, Shirley Coleman and Merry Scanlon Ealy to restore portions of the mural.
Now Kozik and Salser have met with MuralColors co-founder Calros Rogel, who praised them because the original method they used was deemed the reason that the mural had weathered as long and as successfully as it had.
Now a mural wash and wet steam will be needed to remove the degraded urethane coating that was originally placed over the painting. The substrate will be repaired, and paint film will be reattached with mural gel.
The MuralColors team will repair peeling paint and areas of water permeation along fissures. That involves peeling back the paint film, cleaning the wall beneath and adhering the original paint film with a permanent gel adhesive.
A fundraiser campaign has begun and Salser said they are currently at $56,208 toward the goal. “Our donors so far include individuals and groups that contributed 40 years ago and some new donors,” Salser said. “We are so excited to welcome everyone to be part of this.”
Donations are tax-deductible and the link to donate online is: awbw.org/temescal
To support via check: make payable to: AWBW, Memo line: TCMP, and mail to: TCMP, 15332 Antioch Street, # 302, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.
I’m so happy they are doing this, it is such a beautiful mural! I hope everyone contributes to help make this happen.