The following represent common types of Email that I get about this site. If you have a question or request, please check this list first.
If none of these answers your question, then please contact me.
Q. I'd like to know more about the project or its results.
A. Try this document.
Q. Can you help me contact a particular mural artist?
A. In general, no. I had some muralist contact information from the year 2000, but it's far out of date, and I don't really know whether any particular muralist wants their contact information given out or not. You're better off trying SPARC or the city mural office.
Q. Can you take a picture of a mural that I've seen or painted?
A. No, since I no longer live in the Los Angeles area, and the site only covers murals in the L.A. area.
Q. Can I use one of your pictures?
A. I generally don't give permission to use these pictures within any commercial project, since I don't really see why a project intended to make money should exclude the muralist who actually painted the mural. (If you'd like to contact the muralist, and they tell me that they want you to use the picture, then I have no objection). I often give permission for use of pictures within noncommercial projects, or for classroom use, but you should ask me for permission first through Email. I can conceivably supply a higher-resolution version of a picture, but this will often require finding a negative, although pictures whose filenames begin with p or n may have higher-resolution digital versions.
Q. Can I send you a picture of a mural to put up on your site?
I used to let people do this, and the site contains a few pictures that were contributed in this way (and thanks to the contributors. But I'm not planning on making any more changes to the site, so I'm no longer doing this.
Q. Can you link to my site?
A. This site is now an archive, so I've taken out any links to other sites. They seem to die of link-rot within a few years.
Q. I'd like you to take down some of your pictures.
A. If you are the artist, owner, or sponsor of a mural, I will take down any picture of that mural that you ask me to take down. The only exception occurs when an artist tells me one thing and an owner tells me another, which can get more complicated. Past requests for takedown of pictures have come from sponsors / owners (SPARC asked me to not show pictures of any mural that they'd sponsored), from artists for their whole body of work, and from artists that were dissatisfied with the quality of particular pictures. (If you'd like a better picture, see below.)
Q. Can't you take a better picture of a mural? The light is bad / there are cars in the way / there are commercial signs, street signs, etc that should have been removed.
A. No, sorry. I no longer live in the L. A. area, and can't take any new pictures. But in general, even if I was still in L.A, I probably couldn't. I took these pictures by driving around the city during odd moments of free time and taking pictures of any murals that I saw (I'd also try to hunt down murals in Robin Dunitz' Street Gallery book). I had no ability or time to wait for better conditions, or to get people to move things around - it is not possible to take pictures of lots of murals if you have to wait for a good setup for each one. In addition, my camera was a cheap point-and-shoot. These pictures were taken as part of a hobby, not as part of a professional photography job.
Q. Can you advise me on how to get a mural painted?
A. Not really, since I've never painted or sponsored one myself (although I have contributed towards mural preservation). The City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department has / had some information on mural permits and public funding.