The Story Behind The Doors Project (note the date of 2002!)

Timothy Greenwood reporting on the Doors Project.

The night I started painting, a news reporter was on his way home from work and apparently saw the strange sight of two people in the dark painting on the closed doors of a business on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in downtown Los Angeles. He parked and began filming us artists over the course of the next two months ultimately putting together this wonderful video, which truly captures the feel of the Walk of Fame late at night. We were so fortunate to have been found by this extremely talented, capable and dedicated reporter, Mr. Timothy Greenwood.

Completed: October 2002

Description: Acrylic painting of celebrities on 40 corrugated metal security doors.

Located: Hollywood Walk of Fame, north and south sides of street, from Wilcox to Apache Blvd, Los Angeles, CA.

Funding: Commissioned by the Hollywood Beautification Team. Funded by the LA Community Redevelopment Agency.

Details: After the riots in the early 1990s, the city of Hollywood installed metal roll-up security doors to protect the businesses. At night, when the doors came down, it was a grim looking neighborhood. The Hollywood Beautification Team came up with the idea to put celebrity images on the doors.

As Project Coordinator and Lead Artist, Susan Krieg was contracted by the Hollywood Beautification Team, Hollywood, CA to create a budget, and to manage and paint this project after they had received CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) funding. It had taken the Hollywood Beautification Team 1 year to complete 4 test doors. Susan brought in 5 artists to help. While painting could only take place between 9pm and 4am, the 40 doors were completed in two months. Susan painted 30% of the doors, in addition to altering the images in Photoshop, mixing the paints in various hues of grey and preparing the equipment and materials for each night’s work. At night when businesses closed and the doors came down, approximately four blocks on Hollywood Blvd became a night time art gallery.

Since then, the doors have not been maintained and have fallen victim to the blight of graffiti and tagging. The photo below gives you a sense of what these four blocks looked like early on a Sunday morning before the stores opened.

About 1/4 of the project on one side of the street ending at Wilcox.

Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Frank Sinatra and John Raitt Doors

The 7 doors that make up the Star Trek Corner

Interesting Fact: The actors had to have a star on the Walk of Fame to be included in the project, but the actor’s image was not necessarily next to his/her star.