Symbolism In Going To The Olympics, 1984

In Frank Romero 's mural "Going to the Olympics, 1984," it shows us some imagery that includes palm trees, cars, hearts, and symbols from the Olympic Games. The palm trees represent the city of Los Angeles since it is known for having them. The cars represent the main mode of transportation in LA, which we are also known for. The hearts that hover above the cars represent the love that we have for our car industry and travelling in general. At the top of the mural, there are five symbols that represent what the Olympics are about. The first symbol is an iron that pays homage to Buster Crabbe, who was the first multi-medal athlete of 1934 's LA Olympics. The second symbol shows a couple of wrestlers going head-to-head in a match. This represents one of the events that take place in the Olympics, which is wrestling, but this can also be an allusion that signifies the fighting spirit of the Olympics and that it will be a very entertaining event that will really catch peoples ' eyes. The third symbol is a Goodyear blimp that represents the same blimp that catches aerial views from above the televised event, but again, this can be an allusion to the fact that this could be a good year for the Olympics, and for traffic since the Olympics are among the most storied events in the world, so it wouldn 't be surprising that there would be many spectators that would want to watch these events unfold. The fourth symbol is a horse, which also represents an Olympic event, which are the equestrian events. The fifth, and final symbol is a stamp that can represent a stamp of approval or recommendation so that people can get into their automobiles and go see the games. Based on what I see in the mural, I feel like Romero feels very excited about the car industry in Los Angeles because people can be able to rejoice and have a good time at the Olympics, plus, people would be able to see his mural when they would pass by, so they can get his message. …show more content…
The colors that make up the mural have certain meanings, like the top of the mural, which is red with some yellow. This represents a beautiful sunset and/or sunrise, which obviously gives a relaxed and euphoric mood. Los Angeles is a city that can boast a lot of beautiful sunsets/sunrises, so that tells us that life in Los Angeles is a beautiful thing. The bottom of the mural shows us some blue, triangularly shaped objects. These objects are most likely the San Gabriel Mountains that lay in the background in every iconic LA image, or it can represent the waves of the Pacific Ocean along our iconic beaches. In 2009, Romero sued Caltrans for covering the iconic mural that he made back in 1984. It was covered some time after 2007, without any consent, so that angered Romero to the point where he needed to file a lawsuit. However, it was not Caltrans that had the entire blame. IT turns out that after years after graffiti tagging, this mural, plus dozens of other murals were attempted to be restored, but vandals kept coming and covering everything up, so Caltrans stepped in and covered the mural with anti-graffiti paint so that taggers wouldn 't be able to tag on it again, but that still didn 't bode well with Romero since he and all the people of LA thought that we should be able to witness the evocative imagery of these meaningful murals. Romero wanted to keep expressing his love for the …show more content…
It seemed like as if LA was pressured to make a split second decision by considering the amount of tagging that had occurred on it. I also think that since they were so concerned with the taggers, they completely forgot about the what this mural stood for, so now they were put on the spot. If I was facing this situation as the artist of the mural, I would be infuriated because the city of Los Angeles doesn 't even appear to show some interest towards the mural. I would also persuade the city to recognize what this mural means to everyone, so that they can realize what really counts when it comes to the