Kobe and Gianna Bryant Mural May Be In Laguna Beach To Stay

LAGUNA BEACH—Kobe Bryant fans everywhere have long known about the mural painted in his honor on Cress Street at Coast Highway. Still, it wasn't until Patch rode by on the free summer trolley last weekend that we caught a glimpse of it. In its original form, the memorial street art went up overnight, appearing on February 1, 2020.

The tale of why it remains has twists, turns and maybe a touch of fate.

Murals honoring the basketball superstar’s memory number 569, with 138 of those in 40 other countries across the globe.

Most feature Bryant wearing either his number 8 or 24 and include his beloved daughter Gianna, number 2, who also perished when the helicopter they were riding in crashed. A total of 7 others also died, including Gianna’s teammates and their parents, her coach and the pilot.

The Laguna Beach Kobe mural depicts the longtime Laker airborne, legs spread wide, dunking a heart-shaped balloon into an actual vent on the building’s south-facing wall. This interplay of graffiti with the physical attributes of the surface being tagged is a signature move of internationally famous street artist Banksy.

Indeed, one of Banksy’s most iconic images was usurped for the Laguna mural: a little girl who’s just let go of (or is about to grasp?) a heart-shaped balloon. Banksy stenciled the little girl with hair blowing toward the balloon in the mid-aughts, along with the phrase: “There is Always Hope.”

In the Laguna Beach mural, the lob-pass feeding Kobe’s dunk is the floating balloon rising from the girl toward the vent.

The question of who painted this clever homage to Bryant and Banksy has long been suspected and recently confirmed: Hung Tran, aka @hungfineart.

But why is Hung’s mural still up?

Much of the credit for its survival goes to the woman who runs the corner business, European Optical.

Astrid Chitamun took over when her father, founder Udo Stoeckmann, retired in 2008. He opened the store 47 years ago just down the block. Astrid relocated to the retail space once occupied by Landmark Surf, renovating it during the pandemic lockdown.

That’s when she fell in love with the mural, partly for the joy that it brings, partly for the foot traffic and partly for a personal connection to the Bryants—their children were classmates.

The mural faces danger.

Around the January 26 anniversary of the fatal helicopter crash, the building owner decided to re-paint the exterior, including the memorial.

Astrid went into action, photographing locals and tourists taking selfies and leaving mementos, then sending pics daily until she had persuaded her landlord to keep the mural.

The building was repainted; the mural remained intact.

Until it was defaced, with the Banksy girl the main target.

Astrid enlisted Hung to paint over the tagging while she calmed the building owner.

Hung not only erased the tagger's strike, he also improved on his original. He replaced the Banksy girl with an image of young Gianna, a basketball sporting number 2 at her feet. As if it were meant to be.

Is the mural permanent? As long as there’s no more tagging, yes, says Astrid.

The story could end there.

It's not too much of a stretch to draw parallels between the two father-daughter pairs, in some way sharing that wall.

At 13, Gianna had mastered Kobe’s fall-away jumper and spinning move to the basket. Astrid began working in her dad’s sunglasses shop on Balboa Island around the same age.

Gianna sat courtside with her dad after his retirement, absorbing the game’s evolution, fomenting her own future legendary moves on the court. Astrid, a Fashion Design & Merchandising grad, is creatively building on her father’s legacy with a coveted line of wearable-art frames, EO by Astrid.

And like Gianna and Kobe, Astrid’s very close to her dad, who is active and full of vigor in his early 90s.

Astrid is also known as the ring lady—the excess material from the frames is made into rings. (Yes, Kobe had a few rings, too.) The designer gifts a ring to each person who purchases an EO frame—she's thoroughly charmed that patrons take longer to select a ring than they do a frame.

A portion of proceeds from each ring sold is donated to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

The moral of the story?

Maybe Banksy is right: "There is Always Hope."