Mike Collins had just moved his psychology practice into a new office on Pacific Coast Highway. He and his fellow tenants were trying to reach an agreement on the right shades for the walls.
He headed to the Dunn-Edwards store a few blocks away, and returned with an an armful of paint samples. Little did he know then the paint he held would someday grace a far larger canvas.
Collins, a Hermosa resident, is among the artists selected for The Billboard Creative, a nonprofit that takes over billboards throughout Southern California, filling them with the submissions of local artists. His painting, entitled “Draw Your Sword,” went up Monday on a Los Angeles billboard located on Robertson Boulevard, near the intersection with Pickford Street. It will be on display throughout December.
Mona Kuhn, the directing curator for the Billboard Creative, said that the the nonprofit collaborates with media companies that own the billboards, and installs the works of art in an attempt “to stop traffic with art.” Founded in 2014, the project has steadily gained prestige. Last year, it carried the work of famed Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha, and this year artists Paul McCarthy and Alex Prager are serving as project ambassadors.
Submissions for this year came in from all over the world, Kuhn said. Choosing the 50 that would appear on billboards required thinking about how the painting would work in the unusual urban setting. After winnowing down the selections, she printed out the pictures and stood on street corners, holding them up to billboards to get a feel for how the image would interact with the environment.
“In a museum you have perfect lighting, white walls, an audience that is expecting to see and admire works of art,” Kuhn said. “With a billboard you have an audience that is much busier.”
She divided her selections into two categories. Those that would be appreciated in the split seconds of motorists racing by, and those that could stand a bit of lingering — art, as she said, for “traffic jams.” Collins’ piece, she said, was in the second category.
“It requires a bit more gazing. It’s transporting,” Kuhn said.
“Draw Your Sword” began life when Collins had put tiny squares of the Dunn-Edwards paint on the office walls. (The title is the name the company gives to the shade of paint.) He liked the texture created as gravity dragged the paint downward, and decided to put some on canvas. He added a few more dramatically named colors — “Wolverine,” “Edge of Black” — and the resulting original now hangs in the penthouse suite of the Hotel Hermosa.
Collins came across the project about five months ago, in the midst of responding to calls for submissions. He had gotten a number of rejections and not have much confidence. But now that his application has been accepted, he is trying to take the newfound exposure of the project in stride.
“My friends said, ‘Dude, it even has an app!’” Collins laughed.
