In 2008, former Hermosa Beach mayor Chuck Sheldon called together fellow, former mayors George Schmeltzer and JR Ravitzky and Hermosa Historical Society members John Horger and Don de Medeiros for a meeting at the Java Man coffeehouse. Sheldon said he wanted Hermosa to be known for something other than its beaches and bars. He proposed documenting the town’s history in murals. The group subsequently set as its goal 10 murals in downtown Hermosa over the next 10 years.
This Sunday, the Hermosa Beach Murals Committee will unveil its fifth mural, “Hermosa’s Great Wave,” on the side of the Underground Pub and Grill at 14th Street and Hermosa Avenue. Its artist is John Van Hamersveld, who earned early acclaim from his 1963 poster for Bruce Brown’s landmark surf movie “Endless Summer.”
The committee’s first mural, by renowned muralists Art Mortimer, was unveiled in 2010. His 70-foot long depiction of downtown Hermosa Beach in the 1920s is on the side of the downtown parking structure. In 2012, a 52-foot-long, 14-foot high mural by Hermosa Beach artist Chris Coakley was unveiled on the side of New Orleans Cafe. Coakley’s beautiful teenage daughter is depicted breaking the fourth wall by tossing a can of blue paint that frames a sparsely populated Hermosa Beach in 1909.
In 2013, the city’s third mural was unveiled on the side of Sheldon’s Hermosa Avenue office building. Artist John Pugh created a trompe l’oeil of a trumpet player blowing a horn with a 10-foot diameter bell that appears to hover over the street. Lighthouse Allstars trumpeter Chet Baker, saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and bass player Howard Rumsey are reflected in the bell.
In February of last year, Palos Verdes muralist Steve Shriver’s 8-foot by 12-foot “Hermosa Bathing Suits Evolve” was unveiled at 500 Pier Avenue, on the side of SC Escrow. It depicts the evolution of bathing suits, from the late 1800s into the imagined future.
For its fifth unveiling, Schmeltzer said, “The committee wanted a mural that honored Hermosa’s surfing history without have to select a particular surfer, hanging 10 or doing a cutback with Palos Verdes in the background. We see that every day of the week. We wanted to move beyond that with something that speaks to surfers and non surfers,” Schmeltzer said.
Van Hamersveld’s early immersion in the South Bay surf culture and his subsequent artistic success made his selection appear almost fated. He grew up in Palos Verdes surfing with Phil Becker, co-founder of Becker Surf and a Hermosa Surfers Walk of Fame inductee. He bought his first surfboard from Hap Jacobs, another Hermosa walk of fame inductee. He and his high school surfing buddies hung out at the Foster Freeze, site of Lance Carson’s legendary hood ornament performance and across the street from where the mural is to be unveiled.
In 1963, while serving as art director at John Severson’s newly founded Surfer Magazine, Bruce Brown asked him to do a movie poster about three surfers chasing an endless summer. The dayglo poster Van Hamersveld created of the three surfers watching the sunset is now in the Los Angeles and New York museums of modern art permanent collections.
Van Hamersveld mural for the 75-foot long wall on the steeply sloping street shows a 19-foot tall wave breaking toward three surfers, standing with their boards upright in the sand. The wave pays homage to the 18th century Japanese artist Hokusai’s famous “Great Wave at Kanagawa.” The three surfers reference Van Hamersveld’s own “Endless Summer” poster. They represent the three distinct eras in surfing — the pioneer, kook box era, the golden era of longboards and the contemporary short board era.
The design, with its flying saucer clouds and suns exploding like pinwheel fireworks, fits within what critics are calling contemporary psychedelic. Van Hamersveld drew the images with pen and ink, scanned them into a computer to color and stitch them together and then had the mural printed out on 17 strips of vinyl and hung like wallpaper.
“Some people will love it, some will hate it,” Sheldon predicted.
Sunday’s unveiling ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m., followed by a reception for the artist at the Underground Pub and Grill. Signed prints of the mural will be auctioned. To purchase tickets for the reception and for more information, visit HermosaMurals.org. For more about the artist visit JohnVanHamersveld.com. ER
