The Palisades Fire destroyed houses in the streets around the Temescal Canyon mural, located across from Palisades High School. The mural, painted in 1983 by Kat Kozik, David Strauch, Jennifer Wilsey and Cathy Salser, had just started restoration in late 2024.
It escaped the flames from the January 2025 fire. Now, just as the homes are being rebuilt around painting, steps to restore the mural’s original beauty continue.
March 14, 2026, marked another major step as the final coat of urethane was removed from the original mural.
The next step will be consolidation. Mural Colors Founder Carlos Rogel explained that consolidation is a process to clean and re-adhere the pigment to the base to recover the work of the original artist.
“A consolidant is applied to the surface to saturate the pigment and strengthen the paint film, healing decades of sun damage and recovering the original appearance of the art,” Roger said and added it is a laborious process. “This step is expected to take several more weeks. The procedure can only take place on weekends when the area is free of parked high school students.”
Once consolidation is finished, then the cracks, peeled layers, and fissures in the wall of the painting will be repaired. “The consolidant restores the paint’s flexibility, allowing the conservation team to peel back the paint film, cleaning the wall beneath and adhering the original paint film with a permanent gel adhesive,” Rogel said.
Rogel praised the original painters. He said the method that they initially employed was the reason that the mural had weathered as long and as successfully as it had. It had been painted from 1983 to 1990, with a retouch in 2008.
In late March 2024, Cindy Simon arranged for Salser and Kozik to meet with Rogel. The first step in restoring the 500-ft. mural, which wraps around Bowdoin along Temescal Canyon Road, was raising nearly $105,000. Kozik and Salser, which they accomplished by October 2024, with help from 195 donors.
That November, the entire wall was given a bubble bath, with help from volunteers. Then the Palisades Fire closed everything. Temescal Canyon Road was used by the Army Corp of Engineers through about August 2025.
The road has been reopened, students returned to Palisades High School in late January 2026, and workers once again are moving forward to bring the mural, which depicts the history of the canyon.
If one needs more information or would like to donate to the restoration and ongoing upkeep of the painting, email Salser & Kozik at [email protected].
Cathy Salser (left) and Kat Kozik and raised money to restore the Temescal Mural.