Olympic gold medalist skater Alysa Liu inspires

U.S. determine skater Alysa Liu made fairly an impression at the Milan-Cortina Olympics with her distinctive model, her compelling backstory and, of course, her gold medals in the ladies’s singles competitors — the first for an American lady since 2002 — and in the workforce event.

Her feats captured the eye of local artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. He needed to be sure to seize all of it in his new mural paying tribute to the 20-year-old athlete in Gardena.

“Obviously her winning gold was the main factor” in his selecting to paint Liu, Zermeño said.

But once the Mexican-American artist realized more about the Chinese-American skater, he discovered inspiration in other facets of her life as effectively. That consists of the Oakland native’s two-year retirement from the game beginning at age 16, her enrollment at UCLA and her choice to categorical herself in her own means.

“She’s first-generation American, just like myself,” Zermeño said. “So I feel like that tie, her going to UCLA, her stopping skating for awhile and then jumping back in and more being herself — you know, growing up in Venice, I feel like that’s what kind of made me an artist. Venice allowed me to be myself, be wacky on the boardwalk, artists, performers, stuff like that.

“So I feel like there were a lot of connections beyond her just winning the gold medal. But ultimately, I think she just deserves her flowers, man. She accomplished something, and I feel like her personality is what’s really garnering all this support from people.”

Zermeño was driving to get dinner close to his home earlier this week and observed a wall he thought could be excellent for his Liu-inspired project outdoors the Coe’s Glass & Mirror building at 15532 Crenshaw Blvd. It turned out that Zermeño casually knew the business proprietor, although Alex Lopez said he never realized his former next-door neighbor was a mural artist.

Still, Lopez accredited the project immediately upon seeing samples of Zermeño’s work and a digitally created model of his thought for the Liu portray.

“I mean, I probably should have gone up the chain of command and asked the landlord’s permission, but I knew it was going to come out amazing,” Lopez said. “I just said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ The landlord came by this morning and loved the piece. He was really glad that we did it.”

Artist Gustavo Zermeno Jr. said he was impressed to paint a mural devoted to U.S. skater Alysa Liu for causes ‘beyond her just winning the gold medal.’

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Zermeño began portray Tuesday and hopes to be completed early next week. The mural will characteristic three photographs of Liu, including two of her skating, but the centerpiece is a larger-than-life headshot of her from the ladies’s singles medal ceremony.

In it, the halo-haired athlete smiles broadly as she pretends to take a chew out of her gold medal, placing on full show her now-famous “smiley” piercing in the tissue connecting her higher lip to her gums.

‘I think it really represents her personality and where she’s from, the Bay Area,’ artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. said of his mural devoted to U.S. skater and Oakland native Alysa Liu.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

“I like that it’s a little rough around the edges, but beautiful at the same time,” Zermeño said of the portrait. “I think it really represents her personality and where she’s from, the Bay Area. And so I feel like it just looks, you know, a little hood but at the same time, her being a figure skater, has that softness to it. And that’s kind of what I wanted.”

Lopez added: “I love it. Just her in general, as a person, I think she’s great. What she was able to accomplish in the Olympics is amazing for the United States and just for California. I’m honored to have her mural here. I feel like it represents the community and our business really well.”