Underground art

My favorite part about taking photos of the areas where I live for my blog is that I tend to pay attention to the details better. Just this weekend, I was walking through a tunnel that runs underneath Pacific Coast Highway and suddenly realized there was art on the walls:



Most people rushed right by, just as I had done previously on my bike. This weekend was the first time in years that I had walked through the tunnel since my kids were too young before now to walk this path that leads to the beach. Indeed, when you first go in, it looks like any other tunnel.



But since I'm the type to examine even the posters in the subway, there I was clicking away at these images that I found so enchanting.



The images are rough and child-like perhaps because they probably were painted by kids, but that only made them more appealing for me. I figure what better way to encourage kids to follow their creative muse if the fruits of their labor are going to be on public display to enjoy for years to come.



Granted, a tunnel is not the Louvre, but I'm sure there were others who found the art equally captivating.



The messages in the art are clear. Keep the beaches clean.



Don't litter. Don't take "souvenirs."



We're all in this together.



These budding artists even replicated the seal of the state and surrounded it with images of native plants, reminding us that every region has its own homegrown living beauty that we need to protect.



In the end, the message I took from my walk through the tunnel was this:



Life is beautiful. Trite, but true. Even on a walk through the underground.