If you’re one who likes to go hog wild, you may find the mural surrounding the Farmer John Brand Clougherty Meat Packing Company in Vernon, CA, just your thing.  It certainly got my attention – so much so that I whipped out my camera and took photos from one end of the mural to the other.

The mural basically depicts farm landscapes where you can see fields, trees, corn, barns, etc and of course, lots of pigs, big and small.   Some of the pigs are happy and carefree, either laying in the grass, playing in the mud or with each other, flying airplanes, sleeping in hammocks and interacting with everyone from a buxom hill billy gal to keeping a boy company while he’s fishing to pulling a wagon for a Gladiator wanna-be.

Other pigs are trotting happily following a road and “Farmer John” signs to what they think is probably OZ, but is actually a smokehouse or a greased pig contest.  A variety of other animals also grace this mural like dogs, chicks, quails, hawks, crows and probably even more that I may have missed this time around.

If you’d like to know the history of this mural, it basically goes like this.  In 1957, Barney Clougherty, then owner of Farmer John, was approached by  Les Grimes, a talented painter of scenic backgrounds for Hollywood movie sets, to decorate the outside of his building.  With Barney’s blessing, Grimes spent the next eleven years working on his “masterpiece.” Unfortunately, Grimes died in a fall from a fifty- foot scaffolding he was using to paint a portion of the sky on the mural.

After Grimes’ death, Clougherty hired Arno Jordan to finish the murals.  Arno Jordan continued the legacy by painting new murals and restoring Grimes’ originals.  To noted art dealer Ivan C. Karp, the murals are “a fundamental tract for West Coast vernacular painting.” What’s great about this mural is that it includes several gatefold plates of entire walls. Now that’s some great detail.  The plant was purchased by Hormel who intends to maintain the murals.

To see the the photos I took of the mural, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157600117263368/

To check out the mural for yourself, here’s the address below:

Farmer John
3049 E. Vernon Avenue
Vernon, CA 90058

by Encino Man

Banana OG ~ This light green and orange, yellow-dusted bud smells of sweet flowers and bananas, with an exhale nearing as sweet (I want to try it again now that I’m not using butane lighters on my bowls).  The bud is sticky and crisp, and like all of these, are absolutely saturated in magical crystals.  Smoking gave me a loose body high, with a nice melty head buzz. OG, though stuck with the kush name, is mostly sativa, keeping things upbeat, the cross of the banana makes it sappy and devastatingly foggy to the frontal lobe after 3 large bingers. Still, I marched on…

Fire OG ~ My favorite of these OGs. Has that exotic Kush smell of rose and pine sol, with chocolate tones. This batch was fluffy and beautifully unkempt. Flames of of red and orange coil leap from the light green bud. So sticky it hurt, well not really. Deep, dank on the inhale, with a smooth tasty exhale that lingered in a musty, pleasant aftertaste. I puffed on this steadily for a week and never grew tolerant of the feeling that I was leaving tracers wherever I went, with a heavy head high that stuck for hours.

Super OG ~ Holy shit, the smells coming from a jar of this sticky, dark green nug brings about a 40 Thieves spice market of aroma. Rose, methyolyptus, soapy citrus, tar, incense, pine resin, fertilizer, and mint.  It is pungent, herbal, and delicious in every way. The kush smell makes you feel like an emperor on a flying carpet, in pointy shows and a jeweled turban. That’s before you smoke it. A taste of toasted marshmellow, perfume, and nag champa awaits, leaving the mouth feeling very clean. My head goes all abuzz on this sweet, mossy exhale of sweet dankness, and subconcious seemed to forn an instant bridge to concious mind at warp speed. Everything felt silky and sweet.

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One of our city’s most important public-access TV figures, John Kilduff, does a live painting class on the streets of Downtown LA, right at 5th and Spring.

Since public access TV in Los Angeles is going away, John is now internet only. Check out his last ever public access show here.

Atlantic Ave. & Tweedy Blvd. ~ South Gate

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