If you hitch a ride on the Metro Gold Line, just a few blocks west of the Highland Park Metro station you may catch a tropical glimpse of bright yellow flowers and a pinkish purplish sunrise coming up over volcanoes. These scenes of Nicaragua are painted on a private home on Marmion Way—part of a project that aims to bring public art to the L.A. Metro line and link it to neighborhoods in Tijuana.
The artists work with homeowners to create the murals. In Highland Park, Glenda Zuniga decided she wanted scenes reminiscent of her mother’s culture in Nicaragua. So, together with Avenue 50 Studio artists Daniel Ruiz, Jennifer Gutierrez Morgan and other collaborators, they created the scenes of the bird, the plumerías and the volcanoes that cover the country. This is the first house completed in Los Angeles as part of the Casas Arte Home Intervention Project.
The art gallery in Tijuana, Consejo Fronterizo de Arte y Cultura, has completed eight home murals and the project creators hope to add at least two more in each location.
Here are two of the homes in Tijuana:
If you would like to see the Highland Park mural, take the Gold Line from downtown toward Sierra Madre. The home will be on the left, after the Southwest Museum station and few blocks before the Highland Park station.