First Steps to Remediating Mural: a Gel Bubble Bath

Volunteers scrubbed the Temescal Mural with a gel as the first steps to remediating the art.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN

In the midst of heavy rains on November 15 and 16, volunteers stepped up and gave the iconic Temescal Mural a “bubble bath.” The gel bath was in preparation for refurbishing the 500-feet mural “History of the Palisades” that was painted in 1983.

Original mural painter Kat Kozik told the volunteers “We started the mural with friends because of a Palisades High School classroom teacher.

“The mural is based in hikes and photographs we took,” she said. “It was paradise to be a child and wander around this area.

“We love this place, it has so much natural beauty,” said Kozik, who with David Strauch received permission from the City of Los Angeles to paint a mural of the evolving history of Pacific Palisades. Fellow students Cathy Salser and Jennifer Wilsey joined them.

The foursome and then Kozik on her own, painted the mural from 1983 to 1990. The mural focuses on the land, animals and first people, and then shifts to a scene depicting the Milky Way, the cosmos and a trickster coyote leaping into the great beyond.

There had been 2008 restoration undertaken by local artist Terri Bromberg and sponsored by the Temescal Canyon Association, but now almost two decades later, there were cracks, chips and fading colors.

Led by Cindy Simon and Cathy Salser, a new effort to remediate the artwork started in January 2024.

Salser and Kozik met with MuralColors co-founder Calros Rogel, who praised them because the original method of painting than applying a urethane coating was the reason that the mural had weathered as long and as successfully as it had.

The cost to take off the degraded urethane coating, replace the bubbles and dealing with fissures was $105,000. By October 2024, about 75 percent of the money had been raised and a contract signed.

The mural survived the Palisades Fire and almost a year after money was raised, the first steps to bring the once vibrant colors back to life with a mural wash.

Volunteers used soft-bristle brooms to push a gel over the entire painting. Next the mural was hit with a wet stream of water, which caused the urethane coating to fall off.

After the gel was applied, the water helped pull the urethane coat off.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN

The original color of paint started to show through, and it was striking.

Rogel said the next steps are to repair the substate and reattach the paint film with mural gel. The MuralColors team will repair peeling paint and areas of water permeation along fissures. That involves peeling back the paint film, cleaning the wall beneath and adhering the original paint film with a permanent gel adhesive.

The November wash was the start of the historic mural remediation.

As Kozik said, “This is a love letter to this place, the Palisades.” Salser added, “All of us are part of it.”

Kat Kozik (left) and Cathy Salser join volunteers in scrubbing the mural that they originally painted.     Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN