Mural Conservators Fight Graffiti

POSTED: 5:43 pm PDT September 13, 2006
UPDATED: 10:00 am PDT September 14, 2006


LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles is often singled out as the "Mural Capitol of the World" because of the number and quality of murals gracing the city's walls, bridges and freeway abutments. But many of those murals have been threatened by deterioration, graffiti and disinterest in some parts of the community. NBC4's Kelly Mack met with a family of mural conservators who are working to change that.


KELLY MACK: The LA Marathon Mural by Kent Twitchell is one of the most famous murals in the city. It was painstakingly removed from its original spot near LAX and placed on a wall at the 5 Freeway near Stadium Way and already it is defaced with graffiti.

The so-called 7th Street Altarpiece, also by Kent Twitchell, was moved to the 101 Freeway at Grand and graffiti artists soon followed.

But keeping up with those taggers, as best they can, are several members of the Zakheim family, all of them passionate art conservators.

SHAKUNTALA ZAKHEIM, ART CONSERVATOR: These murals are public art for the people. These are their murals.

MACK: The Zakheims came up with an ingeniously simple two-part process that not only protects, but preserves the mural. They are working on a Judy Baca mural on the 4th street off ramp from the downtown Harbor Freeway. They saturate the mural with the same resin used by the Vatican in the Sistine Chapel, which binds the paint at the molecular level, making it thicker and stronger.

NATHAN ZAKHEIM, ART CONSERVATOR: No solvent and no pigment can go through it whatsoever. Then a wax on top of that so that graffiti can be taken off with solvents or with hot water.

MACK: The wax acts as a barrier between the mural and the graffiti artist's spray paint so with just some hot water and a little bit of pressure the graffiti comes right off.

ZAKHEIM: It melts the wax and slides off the wall. In this case bursts off the wall, taking the graffiti with it, leaving a clean surface underneath. It is much to the frustration, we hope, of the graffiti person.

MACK: The cleaning process is so easy even a television reporter in platform heels can manage it without difficulty.

KUVALESAYA ZAKHEIM, ART CONSERVATOR: It's something that can be done over and over and over again, which is something these murals need to stay.

MACK: But keeping up with the taggers is tough. The Zakheims are hoping for more funding, perhaps in the form of an "Adopt a Mural" program similar to the familiar Adopt a Freeway plan.

SHAKUNTALA ZAKHEIM: I'm hoping to see both corporate and private sponsors chipping in, rolling up their sleeves and saying, 'Hey, let's make this city beautiful.'

MACK: In the meantime, the work continues to save this public art and its unique cultural relevance to the City of Angels.

Contact the Zakheims at zakheim@earthlink.net, the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles or the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles