Art Alley gets facelift

By Barbara Soderlin | Sunday, June 01, 2008

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Tom Gorder and his family stood in the alley in the rain, clothes soaked, painting a Dumpster a runny fuschia to cover up old graffiti. Cars and an occasional delivery truck drove through the tight corridor, stirring up the puddles, while shoppers cut through with arms full of purchases and workers from Hotel Alex Johnson stepped out for their cigarette breaks.

Even in an alley, life is on the move. On this wet Saturday, when just a few people responded to a MySpace bulletin about cleaning up the Art Alley, change was in the air.

The clean smell of the rain mingled with the cigarette smoke and the rotten smell of whatever was in the Dumpster, and Gorder mused on what it meant to clean up an alley covered in artistic expression.

"It's kind of a gray line between what's graffiti and what's art," he said. Alley founder Todd Rigione -- who first painted over graffiti there about five years ago -- and some of the people who own buildings along the alley want less tagging and more painting, whether it's pop art or impressionism.

"There's some just incredible artists here, and then someone just comes and tags it," said Annette Ross, who works at Global Market and regrets that someone painted over a Superman mural across her store's back door.

Other cities wouldn't allow any of the painting. Vince Taylor, who helped paint over graffiti, moved here from Salt Lake City, where "If you did any of this, you'd get in trouble. You'd get a fine. But here, it's cool." He sometimes walks down the alley to feel inspired after a long day.

One building owner said he plans to put lights and cameras on his building to deter vandals and make artists and others feel more comfortable walking there, like Taylor does.

But others think Rigione is going too far with his plans to clean the alley and take it mainstream.

Some of those plans include an event next week, in which a group of artists whose names people recognize, including James Van Nuys, will create works in the alley and install them there, and Rigione hopes this summer's series of free downtown Thursday night events brings shoppers, tourists and locals into the alley.

He envisions the back doors of the businesses becoming as important as the front doors.

"Someday, it will be just be like a mall," he said.

He knows not everyone agrees.

"Change is so difficult within all of us," he said. "There's people that are angry about it; there's people that are excited about it."

Photographer Richard Jacome, who stopped by to scope out the midday light in the alley for some wide-angle pictures he hoped to make, isn't thrilled about the event for the big-name artists. He said the alley should be a place for everyone and if those artists, whose work he enjoys, want to create works there, they can do so quietly like everyone else.

But Rigione says the alley has always been about change.

If it can reach a new audience and keep evolving, and boosting downtown businesses, he said, "It turns positive for the community."