Sold "Flash" (click image to the left below to see it larger) to Venice residents J. and M. Perea, then asked me if I would paint a mural on their wall along Pacific Avenue just South of Brooks Avenue. This painting is significant because of its proximity to Brooks Avenue and the beach. The summer of 1974 39 Brooks Ave. was my summer destination. It is where I would meet up with my best friend Nickey Delmonte. His parents apartment was full of art that his father Bob had made or collected. THere were also a stack of Playboys in the livingroom and I thought that was so cool- ofcourse

Venice Beach was buck naked that summer and Nickey and I would walk down and check out all that naked ladies. We also spend a lot of time smashing bottles in dumpsters. Already an author, I had recently returned from Kenya with 4 books I'd written about orphan children on various adventures, Nick and I talked about writing a book called "Claws" about a giant lobster that came onto Venice Beach and attacked people. I don't know if he ever wrote it but it was a great idea. I think Jaws had just come out. Bob and Joan Delmonte, as well as Nick and his younger brother Andy (my brother Andy's best friend) were all creative and it is because of them I am a painter today though I didn't know it at the time.

Twenty Five years later (November 1999) I moved to 147 Brooks Avenue with my wife to be and lived there for about a month. We had a roommate who was a brilliant painter but his stormy aura made it impossible to live there. The stress of the passing of my good friend Brett Kashmere and finding a painting by our room mate which looked like my wife's nude brown back freaked her out and we had to go. Ironically we found nothing in Venice affordable and we moved to Santa Monica, where I live now, but not before I took about ten paintings down to the boardwalk and screwed them onto a construction wall at the corner...

This mural was painted in about 8 hours. I incorporated all my favorite elements and even though I feel like I'm rushing into a dark hall every time I begin, by the time it was over I was fully inspired. I was even okay with the fact that people were saying nice things as they drove by. One thing I am not is a performance artist when painting at least.

- David Hinnebusch