back next Venice Beach Murals, Canals, Photos Imagetripping sells unique framed images of Venice, California Murals, Canals, and People. Venice is a neighborhood on the west side of the city of Los Angeles, California. It is about 14 miles west of downtown Los Angeles and is home to canals, murals, Muscle Beach, and great people watching on the beach and board walks. Venice features canals, murals, beach, ocean, skate punks, cyclists, street artists, musclemen, and shops hawking ice cream, body piercings, tattoos, surf gear, swim suits, drinks, and medical marijuana. What more can one ask for a vacation or weekend retreat!! Venice Canal Historic District Venice was founded by a tobacco millionaire, Abbott Kinney in 1905. He had several miles of canals dug to drain the marshes for his residential area. Kinney sought to recreate the appearance and feel of Venice, Italy in Southern California. The canals are bordered by South Venice Boulevard on the north, Strongs Drive on the West, 28th Avenue on the South and Eastern Court on the East. The canals fell into disrepair and were rebuilt in 1992. The residential district surrounding the remaining canals was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. However, in recent years, there has been extensive renovation work on many of the old houses, and many large, modern houses have been built. During holiday time, many of the homes, bridges and small boats are decorated with holiday lights producing colorful night time scenes. Some of the homes are quite eclectic. A few are presented in this gallery. Murals The Venice Chamber of Commerce holds the monthly "Venice Art Crawl" featuring “pop-up” galleries, Wall Murals on buildings that include animals such as Octopi, Venice Beach scenes, animals in a chorus line, a pipeline or breaking wave, and even a bordello. This gallery features some murals by Rip Croink, a world renowned mural artist such as his Venice Beach Chorus Line, Venice Reconstitued and Venice Beach. Some murals not on the Chamber of Commerce mural tour literature that are a must see includes a surfer's pipeline or breaking wave, psychedlic colored murals on Pacific and Windward. Of note is the very first image on the top left row entitled Surfer in Pipeline-The Wave. This features a photograph of a surfer superimposed onto the mural where the building window was. It makes it appear that one is looking through a window into the pipeline to see a surfer. There are many tattoo parlors in town with ome of the residents and visitors flaunting their tattoos. A great place to see these human murals is along the Ocean Front Walk, beach and the famous Muscle Beach Gym located on 19th Ave and Ocean Front Walk. Santa Monica Beach Santa Monica Beach is just north of Venice Beach. One can walk on the board walk and reach Santa Monica Beach and Pier in about 30 minutes. The pier is home to the end of Route 66, the Mother Road that starts in Chicago, Illinois and ends 2,448 miles later at the pier. Route 66 has been replaced by modern highways and only exits in song, poems, books, and memorials such as this one. Along the board walk, one can see all manner of activity ranging from trapeze artists such as those pictured, bikers, skaters, surfing, volleyball games, body builders, sun bathers, and much more. Not to be missed is Arlington West, just north of the Santa Monica Pier and amusement area. Each Sunday from sunrise to sunset, a temporary memorial of crosses and Stars of David are assembled by the Veterans For Peace. This is a place for reflection to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the US during US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A red cross represents the loss of ten military personnel. For those who've lost their lives within the week past are flag draped coffins with blue crosses positioned in front of each of these. The cross was chosen for its simplicity, not for its religious connotation. The image in this gallery was collected on January 5, 2014. Some useful Venice Beach travel resources are listed below. The Venice Beach tourism office features links to the murals that are from 2010 and are outdated. Muscle Beach Web site Venice Beach Tourism Site