Artist: Lazzari and Evans Public Art Design Team

This mural depicts the iconic view of the Los Angeles coastline that passengers see from the air above LAX. You can see the shoreline, the major traffic arteries, the end of the LAX runway along with Marina del Rey, the South Bay, Palos Verdes Peninsula, and the distant Catalina Island. The painting emphasizes the city’s vastness, movement, and a sense of potential.

The aerial view of Los Angeles is divided into three panels, with the tall verticals on the left alluding to high-rise buildings in civic centers.  On the right, the long horizontal panel is like the sweep of the Santa Monica Bay.  Between them are California-native fan palm leaves, which are quintessential symbols of Los Angeles, as they line so many streets and beach walkways.  Here they suggest the idea of warmth, sun, romance, and pleasure.

The work is both organic and geometric, an apt metaphor for the built environment of the city that also contains many outdoor expanses, including parks, nature preserves, canyons, beaches, and mountains. The vibrant, dynamic palette communicates the pulse, energy, and excitement of being in the cultural, artistic, creative city of Los Angeles.

The Lazzari and Evans Public Art Design Team deal with the persistence of nature in urban environments.

Margaret Lazzari is a painter, writer, and former Vice Dean and Professor Emerita of Art at the University of Southern California. Major exhibits include Breathing Space and Vastness, at Billis Williams Gallery LA and the Fresno Art Museum as Distinguished Woman Artist.  She is the author of Practical Handbook for the Emerging Artist and co-author of Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach and received a 1995 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.  

Lauren Evans is a Los Angeles artist and full-time faculty and gallery director at Los Angeles Southwest College. In addition, she has extensive experience teaching in community environments, to diverse populations. Evans has exhibited regularly for over 20 years and has completed several public art commissions.  

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