Features

Graffitirazzi Live Oak Park Pt. 2

By Gar Smith
Friday May 03, 2013 - 09:17:00 AM

            From street level, there's no hint of the hidden bridge or the artwork that has sprung up to decorate it.
Gar Smith
From street level, there's no hint of the hidden bridge or the artwork that has sprung up to decorate it.

            
            Here's the view from the north side of the bridge, moving down towards the creek:
Gar Smith
Here's the view from the north side of the bridge, moving down towards the creek:
Gar Smith
Gar Smith

            
            Stray a bit from the sprawling wall art embellishing the bridge and you might discover another, much smaller, artistic gift inscribed on a nearby path -- an unexplained tribute to octopi.
Gar Smith
Stray a bit from the sprawling wall art embellishing the bridge and you might discover another, much smaller, artistic gift inscribed on a nearby path -- an unexplained tribute to octopi.

            
             The art-scene in the park is mutable. On a recent stroll, visitors were surprised to discover someone had tagged the large wooden table near the towering stone fireplace that dominates one of the park's major gathering spaces.
Gar Smith
The art-scene in the park is mutable. On a recent stroll, visitors were surprised to discover someone had tagged the large wooden table near the towering stone fireplace that dominates one of the park's major gathering spaces.
<b> Next week: Beyond the Tunnel -- Live Oak Park Art, Part 3 </b>
Gar Smith
Next week: Beyond the Tunnel -- Live Oak Park Art, Part 3

In addition to the colorful gallery of graffiti beneath Walnut Street near the Berkeley Arts Center, there is another flamboyant display on the cement bridgework supporting Oxford Street where it curves past the western edge of Congregation Beth El. On the west wall of the Cordonices Creek bridge, mysterious trolls armed with bandanas and spray cans have installed huge panels of wall art that extend over both sides of the tunnel below.