{"id":12354,"date":"2020-01-28T20:10:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T04:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000006702"},"modified":"2020-01-29T13:42:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T21:42:36","slug":"crowds-flock-to-kobe-mural-created-overnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/crowds-flock-to-kobe-mural-created-overnight","title":{"rendered":"Crowds flock to Kobe mural created overnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

A larger-than-life portrait of Kobe Bryant has drawn visitors to the parking lot behind Priority Barber Club, where a mural of the late basketball star was finished, Monday, by artist Misteralek.<\/p>\n

Owner Johnny Garibay, who opened the shop about a year ago, said he met the painter through his brother. When he heard the news of Bryant\u2019s passing, he called Misteralek who started working on the portrait Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was down,\u201d said Garibay. \u201cHe was like, \u2018Let\u2019s get started right now.\u2019 I said, \u2018Dude, it\u2019s dark!\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018I got lights.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A group poses in front of the newly painted mural of the late Los Angeles Laker great Kobe Bryant, by artist Misteralek. Photo by Stephen Carr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Garibay, who heard the news around noon on Sunday, said he didn\u2019t want to believe it, that he grew up watching Bryant as a kid. He felt especially torn when he heard the news of Bryant\u2019s daughter Gianna because he has a nine-year-old son.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine how terrible that pain feels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The artist, who grew up in South LA\u2019s graffiti scene, and has created other tribute murals around Los Angeles area, including one of Nipsy Hussle, said the more he kept hearing about the story the sadder it got.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like someone I knew had passed away, that\u2019s how bad it was,” Misteralek said. \u201dIt feels pretty amazing to be able to leave something for the community. It\u2019s also a way for me to deal with this pain right now. This helps me a lot, it\u2019s like therapy for me, I paint every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist said he is planning on adding a portrait of Gianna to the mural, possibly later next week.<\/p>\n

Marianna Gravett of Seal Beach, who came to visit the mural with her two daughters, shed tears contemplating \u201cwhy someone not related to you could mean so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Marianna Gravett of Seal Beach stands in front of a mural of Kobe Bryant at Priority Barber Club with her two daughters and barber shop owner Johnny Garibay. The mural was finished Monday by artist Misteralek. Tuesday, Jan. 28. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gravett, once an avid basketball player, said she religiously watched Bryant during his career, glued to the television. She said she ran into Bryant at a Los Angeles pizza restaurant in 2001 \u201cwhen he still had an afro” and recalled a moment during their conversation when a kid wanted Bryant’s autograph and he happily beckoned him over.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so gracious,\u201d said Gravett. \u201cAnd as a parent of young African American girls [myself], the way he embraced parenthood and Gigi and put in so much effort with her, made me respect him even more. In areas you couldn\u2019t be excellent at, he never let you down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sad, but I\u2019m happy he\u2019s here and people get to enjoy it,\u201d said Garibay. \u201cA lot of people have come by, hundreds of people I\u2019ve never seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artwork is near the corner of Wardlow Road and Orange Avenue in the parking lot next to Steelhead Coffee; 1208 E. Wardlow Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The artwork is near the corner of Wardlow Road and Orange Avenue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":70821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3,15164],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2744],"class_list":["post-12354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-instagram","tag-kobe-bryant","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12354"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=12354"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}