Some people were born to make a certain something at a specific time in a particular place. This is true of Ian Joseph Jackson and his mural, “La Ola de Ka-yama” (“The Wave of Ka-yama”), which resides on a wall inside Edgemar Restaurant + Lounge in Santa Monica’s Frank Gehry-designed Edgemar complex.
The mural depicts mountain lion P-22 of the Santa Monica Mountains, whose story inspired conversations about the local Gabrieleño/Tongva Indigenous people and environmental issues related to native ecosystems, land stewardship and urban development. P-22’s death was the catalyst for building the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the U.S. 101 Hollywood/Ventura Freeway, which will link the Santa Monica Mountains to the Simi Hills and protect wildlife, flora and fauna. The 210-foot crossing is set to be the largest in the world when it opens on Dec. 2, 2026.
When Jackson first started painting, he did not intend to illustrate P-22. The wall where his mural lives is about 12 feet tall, and up until that point, he had only worked on 4- to 5-foot canvases. He asked: What was this wall seeking to express in this place at this time — when LA was going through a transformation, when he was going through a transformation? . . .
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Jessica Koslow 