Artist remembered for love of aviation
By KRISTIN MAYER Special to the Daily Press
SANTA MONICA AIRPORT Friends and family joined representatives from the Santa Monica Airport and Santa Monica College Wednesday morning to commemorate the life and artistry of aviation muralist Andy Blinn, who died last December at the age of 40 after a life-long bout with cystic fibrosis.
The plaque dedication ceremony spotlighted a mural Blinn painted as a teenager in a stair-well leading to the basement of what was The Donald Douglas Museum and Library of Santa Monica in 1991.
The former museum is now the main building on Santa Monica College’s Airport Campus. The aviation-themed artwork, along with other reminders of the building’s aviation history, were preserved when the college took over the site from the museum in 1988, according to Bruce Smith, the college’s public information officer.
“It’s a great, great way to commemorate” the Douglas aircraft, said Rod Merl, planning and administration manager at the airport, about the mural.
Merl pointed out that Douglas Aircraft was a piece of Santa Monica history. Donald Douglas founded the Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica in 1921, and it remained a major manufacturing employer in the city for several decades.
As a 15-year-old aviation enthusiast, Blinn visited the museum and asked the director if he could paint a mural. The result was a depiction of various Douglas aircraft from the 1920s through the 1790s.
“He was quite a budding artist, and he loved aviation,” Smith said.
Blinn completed the mural over the course of a year, his parents driving him on the weekends from their home in Manhattan Beach.
“Some weekends he couldn’t make it because he was at the hospital with health problems,” Smith said. “What makes this so poignant is that he had cystic fibrosis his whole life.”
Blinn was diagnosed with the genetic disease when he was 6 months old. Cystic fibrosis clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It also obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.
While trips to the hospital for treatment delayed Blinn’s mural project, they didn’t stop Blinn from ultimately pursuing his dreams.
A love for art led the Mira Costa High School 1983 graduate to study art and computer graphic design at California State University at Dominguez Hills, graduating summa cum laude.
After computer design-related positions prompted him to move from Santa Barbara to Seattle to San Pedro, Blinn ultimately settled into jobs with Wells Fargo Bank and as a freelancer for American Honda Motor Company in Torrance, according to www.andyblinn.com, a Web site dedicated to Blinn’s memory.
“His analytical mind, his artistic creativity, and his calm, nonjudgmental approach to problem-solving made him a trusted co-worker,” reads the Web site.
Blinn’s parents, Richard and Marjeanne, joined a group of about a dozen family friends and officials who attended Wednesday’s intimate, and emotional, ceremony.
“As a representative of the college, we’re very pleased and honored to put up this memorial in honor of this work,” said Katharine Muller, Santa Monica College’s dean of external relations, the administrator in charge of the college’s satellite campuses.
The plaque in the stairwell, with two pictures of Blinn painting the mural, reads: “Andy lived courageously with the genetic disease cystic fibrosis. He treated each day of his life as a gift. He loved art, airplanes, computers and many friends. He achieved awards in every field he entered. He gave his creative spirit to everything he touched.” Courtesy of Santa Monica College The aviation mural painted by Blinn depicts Douglas Aircraft from the 1920s through the 1970s.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 1, 2007. Read the original PDF.