Risk Mural (SaMo Graffiti Building)

Risk, Slick, Kelly Graval, Abel, Nathan Ota, Sel Dog, Sonny Boy, Severe, and Vya.

Risk Mural (SaMo Graffiti Building)

The original mural was made in 1991 the most recent mural was repainted 24 years later in 2015.

Acrylic paint, spray paint.

Considered the oldest running graffiti in Santa Monica, Kelly Graval (RISK) and his friends revisited the building after 24 years to work on two walls. Owned by a post production company known as Rock Paper Scissors, the building still maintains its iconic elements that were seen before RISK and his friends touched the wall again. With RISK's signature "beautifully destroyed" aesthetic, he redid these two walls to give it a more colorful look.

The project was commissioned by the building owners who requested RISK to preserve some of the old iconic elements, incorporating it with his new artwork. Located on Cloverfield and Broadway in Santa Monica, the building was once owned by Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone, and now plays host to Rock Paper Scissors, a post production company who edits for the world’s top directors, studios and advertisers.

In 1988, after graduating from high school in Hawaii, Slick moved to Los Angeles in order to attend Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. He studied illustration there for about a year. In 1989 he and fellow graffiti writer Risk won first prize at Street '89, an international street art festival held in England and later became friends and came together to make the SaMo Graffitti building.

This mural focuses primarily on warm tone colors. There are cool colors but they are very short and brief, and the colors blend together. Where there are cooler tones on the far left, it begins to emphasize darkness, culminating in a painted image of a skull. The skull has shades of darker, cooler tones, emphasizing darkness, and rich in shades of warm pink. These colors bring potential feelings of dread or depression. As for when it reaches the warmer shades on the right side, it emphasizes sunshine, bringing feelings of warmth. On the opposite side of the skull, there is an image of an angel slumped and swathed in shades of blue. This color generally represents depression in art. On one wall of the mural, the artist doesn't paint very angular for the graffiti. The graffiti has little angular points that is meant to guide your eye across the work, but the line quality is meant to be flowing. In a door, the artist left his signature "Risk Rock" in black, blocky lettering, outlined in cobalt blue. And it is surrounded by a red heart engulfed in flames. In another section of the mural, there is a bird painted in a darker shade of red, with white radiating from it. There is chain link fence with barbed wire painted underneath the bird, and the red bird flying over it. This could potentially represent escaping or freedom from a prison that is holding you back. Or it could represent a literal definition from escaping jail.

Jennifer Perez

Perla Pena-Mendoza

Joscelin Levano

Katelin Alvarenga

Justin Melton

The artwork is significant because its a visual representation on how the use of combining two or more art medias work together to create something as big as a mural. The mural is has bright colors running down the wall through the work using graffiti along with the use of paint to create the silhouette of the images and even the risk logo that are seen on the wall. It also incorporates the use of assembly and installation in the sense that this artwork is layered on the remains of the past mural and many of the more iconic images are still seen on the new one and through the fact that the mural is on the outside of the building instead of the inside. The artwork is in a way very much connected to the idea of representing mortality and immortality through the images of skulls and an angel on the same side of the wall. This can be significant in the way that the artists are trying to put the two sides of mortality one having to do with the physical such as skulls and at the same time describing that death is sometimes related to religion and sorrow. The sorrow can be seen through the fact that the angel is holding its head down. Another thing that can be detected through the images is the image of an eagle flying over a wire fence.This image can be related either to religion stating or giving an animal some other worldly power, or can be seen as an image of patriotism, glory, and power. The eagle is representing America and the wired fence can be seen as Americans being seen as rising above all of the struggles they are faced with. There is also the feeling of remembering the past in the sage of including the images of zippers that are pulled down showing either the old mural or showing the wall before anything was done to it, stating that remembering where you started is important and helpful in finding your way through the present or future. The project was commissioned by the building owners who requested RISK to preserve some of the old iconic elements, incorporating it with his new artwork. Located on Cloverfield and Broadway in Santa Monica, the building was once owned by Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone, and now plays host to Rock Paper Scissors, a post production company who edits for the world’s top directors, studios and advertisers.
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Citation:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/10/entertainment/la-et-street-art-pioneers-risk-20110410 

https://arrestedmotion.com/2015/03/streets-risk-los-angeles/