Among Venice Beach’s assets is that it is home to a diverse group of artists, and reflects back to old Hollywood in film and culture. One artist’s mural that captures the aura of vintage Hollywood as it relates to the beach city is the “Touch of Venice” mural on Windward Avenue, near the beach and boardwalk.
The mural, which measures 50-feet-by-102-feet, faces a pay-as-you-park lot and looks majestic in grand Hollywood style. The mural pays homage to Orson Welles’ 1958 classic, “Touch of Evil.” A creation by muralist Jonas Never and completed in 2012, the black-and-white mural has a dangerous and thrilling noir feel that would have impressed Welles himself.
Never told the Patch in a 2012 interview, “It’s in that part of Venice Beach where you get a cross-section of America. I wanted to capture what Venice was, what it could be and what it is today.”
The art features two people, Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, set against a street lined with cars. The scene is inspired by the opening track of “Touch of Evil,” in which Venice Beach doubled as a Mexican border town in the film. Welles wrote, directed and co-starred in “Evil,” which was loaded with sinister characters, drug cartels and police corruption.
Never said Welles can be seen in the lower right side of the mural, and that he the artist also painted himself into a scene.
There are other additions in the mural that were inspired by various things Never stumbled across, including a “Chop Suey sign (that) was discovered in a random tour guide from the 1960s,” Never said in an article.
Never said he watched “Touch of Evil” three times, but due to the film’s downbeat tone, he searched elsewhere to find a quote appropriate for mural.
“Like a dream I remember from an easier tine…” adorns an area of the mural and was lifted from “a song from is dad’s hometown in New Jersey.”
The passage was to give the feel of a movie, rather than a photograph, Never added.
The artist added that the mural contains something for everyboy, and draws a mix of reactions and opinions.
Ann Everest and Simone Scharff of General Real Estate, a Venice-based property management company, commissioned the mural.
Never had the green light to go with his vision and that freedom has allowed the mural to reach many viewers, in interesting ways.
