Winter 1999 ““ The artist
Mike McNeilly, in preparation for his trial over
the controversial Statue rendition, masks Lady Liberty with the
75-foot "CENSORED" banner.
By Matt Goulding
Daily Bruin Reporter
Failing to comply with the demands of Los Angeles officials to
remove his depiction of the Sept. 11 attack from the side of
Wilshire’s Westwood Medical Plaza, mural artist Mike McNeilly
has been hit with 25 code violations.
Each violation could bring up to $1,000 in fines and six months
in jail.
Though the order issued by officials called for the removal of
the supergraphic by Sept. 24, McNeilly’s oversized
firefighter placed next to the Statue of Liberty still looms over
Wilshire Boulevard.
The artist said political backlash from officials like
Fifth-district Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss are
misdirected and have tainted the original purpose of his piece.
“This city still hasn’t come to its senses,”
McNeilly said. “It boggles my mind.”
In a Los Angeles Times article Wednesday, Weiss commented on the
artist’s intent: “It’s a cynical attempt to use
symbols relating to the worst atrocity in this nation’s
history to get a foot in the door for future commercial
exploitation.”
Weiss was unavailable for comment Thursday due to Yom
Kippur.
McNeilly said officials are misallocating their resources in
removing his work during such a volatile period.
 February 2001 ““ City officials
demand that McNeilly remove the promotional mural for
Disney’s “Pearl Harbor.” McNeilly refuses, and
two months later, alters this image too. “We should support
any and all tributes to these heroic actions,” he said.
“The community is united together in this, and the
politicians have provided the only opposition.”
Controversy concerning his 12-story, oversized urban canvas has
followed McNeilly since developing a working relationship with Jon
Muller, the building’s owner, in 1997.
In 1999, with his painting of Lady Liberty on the side of the
plaza halfway complete, cops arrested McNeilly, and the city issued
similar citations as the ones currently pending.
McNeilly had ignored city zoning laws that prevent any
supergraphics from being erected on the Wilshire “scenic
corridor,” spanning from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica.
All charges against McNeilly were eventually dropped in 2000
when an appellate judge deemed the process for obtaining a permit
for muralists unconstitutional.
McNeilly said he was shocked to see the city’s response,
considering the ruling and the commemorative nature of his
rendition.
While he insists his motive for the latest mural is purely
patriotic, others, like Shelley Taylor, the managing director of
the North Village Improvement Committee, see McNeilly more as a
corporate cash cow than an artistic martyr.
 August 2001 ““ The Medical Plaza
receives another facelift as “Lizzie McGuire,” the ad
for the new Disney series, replaces “Pearl Harbor.”
“His artistic motives are suspect,” Taylor said.
“He’s a businessman first.”
Though Taylor enjoys this particular mural, she said his use of
the wall in the past has been financially motivated and many of the
ads he has constructed have cheapened the image of Westwood as a
community.
Taylor refers to McNeilly’s ambiguous history at the
Medical Plaza.
In May 1996, Muller commissioned a muralist to hang a banner for
the Touchstone picture “The Rock,” marking the first
advertisement placed on the building’s west face.
Subsequently, McNeilly applied for a permit to hang an
advertisement for Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”
but was denied.
Many speculated that his controversial Statue of Liberty in 1999
was an ad for the film “The Corrupter.” Though McNeilly
said the finished product would have been a tribute to the deceased
veterans resting adjacent to the building, the depiction of Lady
Liberty with a tear in her eye was the exact image chosen by
Hollywood executives to promote the movie.
Last February, McNeilly covered the Medical Plaza with a mural
to promote Disney’s movie “Pearl Harbor.”
Officials ordered him to take down the mural, but McNeilly refused,
choosing to alter the banner rather than remove it.
On Aug. 4, motorists on the 405 freeway met another potential
distraction, this time in the form of a young blonde lying stomach
down, her head resting just shy of Wilshire’s perpetual
congestion. McNeilly’s ad for Disney’s sitcom
“Lizzie McGuire” ran until the World Trade Center mural
replaced it.
 Daily Bruin File Photos September 2001
““ In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, McNeilly said he
erected the 120-foot mural to honor the lives lost and the heroes
born. Despite many local authorities’ skepticism, some
community members, including the firefighters, have embraced
McNeilly’s work.
“It helps the community in healing the wounds and
fostering solidarity,” said 37th District Capt. Armando
Jaimes, whose staff on Veteran Avenue emphatically supports
McNeilly’s efforts. “We’re going to have him over
for dinner.”
Amidst all the confusion, controversy, and pending legal
problems hanging over the Wilshire banner, McNeilly remains
positive about the future of his tribute to the rescue workers in
New York.
“Eventually we want to find a place in New York to hang
this mural,” McNeilly said. “Until then, they know
we’re not walking away from this wall.”