‘Old Lady’ Poised for a Comeback : Work Finally Begins on Restoration of Noted Mural Along Hollywood Freeway, Covered by Paint 10 Years Ago

The haunting image of the old lady gazed out over the Hollywood Freeway for more than a dozen years--alternately bemusing and befuddling motorists traveling through downtown Los Angeles.

Some days the grandmotherly figure seemed to be scowling sternly at northbound freeway traffic. Other days she appeared to be cheerily watching over drivers.

Artist Kent Twitchell says it was all in the way the old woman’s eyes were painted on the 30-foot mural half a mile north of the four-level interchange.

“She could be alien and frightening and simultaneously happy and comforting,” recalls Twitchell. “The left eye was the judgmental one. The right eye was one of unequivocal love.”

That means that “The Old Woman of the Freeway” was probably watching with her left eye a decade ago when a billboard company obliterated it with thick white paint.

And she was probably looking on with her right eye the other day when Twitchell launched a restoration project for the mural that has been 10 years in the making.

A public outcry followed the surprise cover-up of the old lady in 1986. After that, state transportation officials stepped in to prevent the billboard firm from turning the white wall into an advertising sign.

But it took a lawsuit by Twitchell to persuade the wall’s owner to allow the mural to be restored. Four years ago the case was settled out of court one day before it was scheduled to be heard by a jury.

As part of the settlement, Koichi Kurokawa, owner of the hotel on which the mural is painted, agreed to pay $125,000 for the restoration, plus another $50,000 for Twitchell’s attorney fees.

Until recently, however, no steps had been taken to scrape away the layers of white paint covering the old lady and the snakelike afghan flowing over her left shoulder.

One reason is that Twitchell moved his studio to the Northern California hamlet of Upper Lake after the 1994 earthquake damaged his Echo Park base. Another reason is that Kurokawa has so far paid only $10,000 of the promised restoration fee, according to Twitchell’s lawyer, Amy Neiman.

Restoration finally got underway Friday when Twitchell returned to town for an upcoming orientation session for new students at the Otis College of Art and Design. He commissioned Marina del Rey art restoration expert Nathan Zakheim to start the paint removal with the money in hand.

Kurokawa declined to discuss the settlement payment. But he pledged to abide by terms of the agreement--and he professed delight that the old lady is returning.

“I’ll be happy,” Kurokawa said from the front desk of his 36-room Prince Hotel at 1255 W. Temple St. “It will be good for the people on the freeway.”

Kurokawa’s lawyer, Chaney Sheffield, said discussions with Twitchell and Neiman over money are continuing. “We’re making good-faith efforts to get everything wrapped up,” Sheffield said.

Once restoration begins in earnest, it will take three weeks to completely reveal the old lady, who was inspired by Twitchell’s grandmothers, with actress Lillian Bronson serving as his studio model. Touch-up work on damaged portions of the mural will take longer.

Bronson, a film and television character actress, died a year ago at 92. Twitchell’s last surviving grandmother, Marie Twitchell, 94, also died last year.

A high-temperature heat gun and chopsticks will be used to remove an inch of the white paint at a time, Zakheim said. The heat will melt varnish that Twitchell applied to the mural as a protective coating in the early 1980s. That will cause the white paint to “float” so it can be plucked off by the chopsticks.

As many as six layers of white paint have been applied to the mural over the years to cover graffiti scrawled by vandals. A restoration test in late 1986 that uncovered the old woman’s eyes was also subsequently painted over by hotel maintenance workers.

White-out is not the only indignity that the mural has suffered since Twitchell spent three months painting it in 1974 as part of a public art program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Los Angeles County. He was paid $459 for his work.

In 1982 the the bottom half of the mural was obscured when a restaurant was built in front of it. As part of the restoration, Twitchell plans to extend the afghan shawl held by the old woman so it “wraps around” the restaurant building.

Twitchell, who turned 54 on Saturday, said he is not bitter over how the mural has been treated.

“The architect called to apologize after the restaurant was built in front of it. He felt bad--it was supposed to have been lower,” he said. And Twitchell suggested that Kurokawa simply misunderstood the mural’s popularity when the hotel leased out the wall to the billboard company in 1986.

But the intriguing old woman was his first color mural, Twitchell said. And it remains one of his favorite pieces--not to mention the best-known of the 25 wall-size portraits he has painted in Los Angeles.

“People started pulling off the freeway and taking pictures of it when it was only about one-eighth finished,” he said. “The reaction was staggering.

“I guess the old woman is something everybody can relate to in some way.”