Dragonflies swarmed around the old Moreton Bay Fig Tree near the downtown train station. Planted in 1877 after an Australian seaman visiting Santa Barbara planted the Ficus macrophylla sapling, the tree is now believed to be the largest of its kind in the nation.
But that isn’t the only thing catching the eyes of passersby.
A friend of my editor noticed that a freeway wall in front of the tree — one that has been tagged and repainted in chunks multiple times — is now covered with large-scale murals depicting men and women.
I stopped by a handful of times, hoping to find the artist behind the work. I even asked a worker at the train station’s tattoo kiosk if they knew who was responsible, but for now, the artist remains a mystery.
If anyone knows the artists decorating the wall facing the historic fig tree, email us at arts@independent.com.
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