Venice Kinesis by Rip Cronk (c) Elisa Leonelli 2023
I was always interested in photographing street murals, because I love their bold colorful depiction of imaginary landscapes. I started with my Nikons and color slides, both Ektachrome and Kodachrome, when I worked as a professional photo-journalist from 1974 to 1989, and I continue to do so to this day with digital cameras: a Nikon Coolpix from 2009, a Sony Alpha a6000 from 2014 and an iPhone SE since 2020.
While covering the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic, I documented the progress of the mural project headed by artist Alonzo Davis. I wrote and photographed articles about Mural Mile in Pacoima and Judy Baca’s World Wall exhibit at the Geffen. (click on links to read)
Starry Night by Rip Cronk © Elisa Leonelli 2023
A few weeks ago I went back twice to the Venice Boardwalk to see what was new on the walls and found that the 1990 mural by Rip Cronk, “Homage to a Starry Knight” had just been restored. Read this May 2023 article and watch the embedded video, where Cronk talks about the original mural conceived as a parody of Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” 1889, how he repaired it during 33 years turning it into a very different mural now. Click here to see how it looked before. See the cool 76-year-old artist repainting the mural all by himself, after driving down 13 hours from Oregon, where he now lives with his wife.
Venice Beach Chorus Line by Rip Cronk (c) Elisa Leonelli 2023
Both times I went to Venice unfortunately this new mural was party covered by parked cars, as was “Venice Beach Chorus Line” from 2004 on the facing wall.
Venice Beach by Rip Cronk © Elisa Leonelli 2023
I was able to take photos from afar of “Venice Beach” from 1990, painted high up on the same building as “Starry Night”, depicting the young artist climbing a wall to deface his own mural. Cronk says that the concept was the owner’s idea, and he was dependent on his permission and funding.
“Venice Kinesis” by Rip Venice Kinesis by Rip Cronk © Elisa Leonelli 2023
I photographed the third version of his most famous mural, “Venice Kinesis” from 2010, a restoration of “Venice Reconstituted” from 1989, a larger image of his 1980 mural “Venice on the Halfshell” that used to be on the Venice Pavillion, and Cronk painted after moving to Venice in 1979. The artist describes it as a parody of Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” from 1486 now on display at the Uffizi in Florence.
Venice Reconstitued by Rip Cronk (c) Elisa Leonelli 1990
I had photographed the two earlier versions, and used the 1980 mural as a backdrop for a 1983 photo layout of Lee Curreri, one of the young stars of the popular TV series Fame. Read my article on Debbie Allen and the other actors.
Venice on the Half Shell by Rip Cronk © Elisa Leonelli 1981Ave, Venice CA.
I did not photograph “Morning Shot” (1991) depicting Jim Morrison because it was behind a fence with parked cars in front, I did not notice the deceptive tromp l’oeil mural “Lost Art” (1990) on the front of the same building as “Venice Kinesis” on Windward Ave, I did not see “Portrait of Abbot Kinney” (2004), which is on Venice Blvd, but I might try to photograph them next time.
In 1996 Rip Cronk published a collection of essays titled Art on the Rebound, that I plan to read. If you wish to learn more about this amazing artist, watch this 2015 documentary.