Ask Chris: Did an artist fake a freeway sign Downtown?
Q: Did an artist fake a freeway sign Downtown?
A: Richard Ankrom missed his off-ramp and didn't want it to happen again. The northbound 110 connects to the 5 north, but overhead signage didn't mention the merger, so Ankrom, a sign artist by trade, decided to make his own freeway shield. "I studied the sign for days," he says. "It was going to have to be airtight because they could prosecute me." He took measurements and matched colors with Pantone swatches. He crafted a decal for his truck, donned a hard hat and, at dawn on Aug. 5, 2001, climbed onto a freeway signboard to hang his replica. "I had to keep my mouth shut for a really long time," says co-conspirator Gary Leonard. "It took less than an hour then we went to the Pantry for breakfast."
The sign remained for eight years. When Caltrans replaced it with a government-made sign, Ankrom tracked his piece to a recycling plant where it had been pressed into a one-ton bale. He recently exhibited his original documentation, drawings, and that hard hat at the Brewery Artwalk. Watch for their next open house next Spring. Ankrom has since painted a corporate logo on a blue jeans factory at 15th and Alameda visible from space and hung 59-star flags (extras for Puerto Rico, Guam, and other U.S. territories) protesting American imperialism at Mexican-American war battlegrounds. He says we'll have to wait for the statute of limitations to run out to hear about his latest guerilla art. "If you find out too soon," he says. "I could get in trouble."
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