Venice Reconstituted

So I spent my evening yesterday, during the "Golden Hour" of course, shooting my very dear friend down at the beach. She is due to give birth in the next couple of weeks, and I have become quite fond of photographing my girlfriends in their 8th month. Big round bellies. Beautiful! Anyway, I walk my neighborhood all the time and feel like I am pretty good at taking note of the new things that are happening to it and enjoying the things that have managed to remain untouched. Maybe I am not as aware as I thought because yesterday I noticed a horrible addition to Venice Beach that I feel I am quite sure I would have noticed by now. At the corner of Winward and Speedway there is an iconic mural that was painted in 1989. You have seen is a million times in movies like "La Story" and dozens of TV shows. It is called "Venice Reconstituted" and painted by a local artist named Rip Cronk. (Check out some of his other Venice work here- Rip Cronk.) I remember the first time I saw this mural in a movie. I wanted to know what Venice Beach was all about. When I moved here, it became one of my favorite things to ride my bike past. It IS Venice. Which is why I am so upset at the current condition of it. This "tagging" is new. Within the last month kind of new and it makes me so angry. Have a little respect! The worst part about it is the kids who are tagging it are local Venice kids. They grew up here. I guess I must have come from a different thought process and a different upbringing. You don't destroy that which defines and embraces the area where you grew up. And it's not just murals that are getting tagged. It is getting out of control and getting harder and harder to deal with. I think it is funny that there is so much money coming into this area right now, to the point where even the locals can't afford to live here anymore, yet there is so much more crap coming into the area as as well. Venice Reconstituted.