Visual Art At Occupy LA

I went to Occupy LA twice with my camera. Once today.  The encampment is slated to come down this Sunday.


This photo was taken before they surrounded the fountain in the background with plywood to protect it.  The plywood became an important canvass, but the peice on the left with crazed Uncle Sams disappeared.


Detail from the wall in the next picture, both on the plywood now protecting the fountain.


Seems to be president John F. Kennedy but I have no idea what that has to do with Occupy LA.  He was, of course, part of the 1%.






Another side of the plywood wall. Rasta religious iconography has nothing to do with the Occupy movement that I can determine except that the smell of marijuana was pervasive on all of my visits.


Many messages.


The third visible wall of plywood covering the fountain.  This wall faces the Los Angeles City Hall which the encampment surrounds.


Detail.



The people camped under this image were the most unfriendly I encountered.



The lower right hand corner seemed to be the sentiment of the street people who appeared to be the largest contingent in the camp.


One of the days I took photographs was just before Halloween.



One corner of the encampment is an arts and crafts center and the dedicated woman sitting for the interview even has a beret on!



I overheard a conversation into a cell phone by one of the occupants of this tent asking someone on the other end of the call to bring him a shirt and his gas mask.



The Yemeni flag had something to do with a peace movement which will need to overcome the hand grenade.



I think this is called naive political art.



The flag was on the lawn in my first visit. I was told by members of the Occupy encampment that the flag was work by a Brooklyn street artist known as Saber.  The piece wasn't there today. The spot is completely covered with tents. I was also told the artist had removed the work and had sold it.


In my earlier visit there was on-site T-shirt screening. It was not there today.



Art in progress.



At the bottom of the standee it says: "Just The Way It Is."



My favorite image and photograph from the visits I made.



Very appropriately for this Journal the sign says: "I Study Art At Occupy LA."



And let us all hope that when the encampment comes down on Sunday it is peaceful.

Let me know in the comments if you would like larger resolution images of any of these.

UPDATE:
The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles is actively looking for an organization to store the plywood panels on which this art was painted.  They saved the panels when the City of Los Angeles tore down the encampment.  You can read more here:
muralconservancy.org/our-blog/…

Sadly, it looks like in the last moments of the encampment some taggers covered up a lot of the art.  You can see this in the photographs of the panel posted by MCLA at the link provided above.