![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/23jul25-7-23-25-walls-9-599970-aoy4ovjf-443840-k8MJs1kT-690x1024.jpg\")
Brian Peterson continues work on his mural on the side of the Marriott as part of Long Beach Walls in Long Beach on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\nIf you spot two men in neon shirts suspended in the air while spray painting the Marriott in downtown Long Beach, don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s Brian Peterson and his brother Sean working on an 86-foot-tall mural for a long-running local art festival.<\/p>\n
In the afternoon, the Petersons have battled winds that send their outdoor lift swaying roughly two to three feet at a time.<\/p>\n
Sean is the voice of reason when the gusts kick up, urging them to get back on solid ground, but Brian always wants to keep pushing through. They\u2019re working on a tight deadline during a weeklong arts festival put on by the local nonprofit Creative Class Collective.<\/p>\n
When it\u2019s done, the 12-story painting will show a child blowing bubbles in vibrant colors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea here is \u2018chase dreams as a kid chases bubbles,\u2019\u201d Brian said. \u201cIt\u2019s an encouragement to not let disappointment or failure stop you, but to always remain childlike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Peterson continues work on his mural on the side of the Marriott as part of Long Beach Walls in Long Beach on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the largest mural Brian has undertaken. His previous high was seven stories.<\/p>\n
In the heart of downtown at Pine Avenue and Ocean Boulevard, it promises to be one of the most noticeable murals produced as part of Long Beach Walls and Art Renzie festival, an annual art event that has resulted in more than 100 murals and art installations throughout the city since 2015. (You can see the locations of this year\u2019s murals here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n Spanish artist Lula Goce<\/a> painted the festival\u2019s previous tallest mural, a six-story high portrait of a woman surrounded by flowers on the side of a parking garage just across Pacific Avenue from Lincoln Park.<\/p>\n Before Brian ever started painting murals of his own, a friend invited him to ride bikes around Long Beach and check out the murals that had been painted during the 2017 Long Beach Walls.<\/p>\n Working as a designer for Kia Motors and dabbling in canvas painting gave Brian a strong artistic background, and he decided to dive into murals in 2018, after a project painting portraits of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Ana caught the eye of a developer.<\/p>\n The developer wanted a mural of one of Brian\u2019s paintings on a 200-foot wall of a homeless shelter he was building. He asked Brian if this was something he knew how to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI lied and said \u2018yes,\u2019\u201d Brian said. \u201cThe rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s since developed a reputation for his murals of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant<\/a>. His first was unveiled in 2021 on a wall across from the original Philippe\u2019s sandwich shop in Los Angeles\u2019 Chinatown neighborhood.<\/p>\n Brian has since painted three more murals depicting Bryant, including two featuring Bryant and his daughter Gianna. Bryant and Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas in 2020.<\/p>\n One mural is at Pearson Park<\/a> in Anaheim and the other is a \u201cCourthedral\u201d<\/a> painted inside the Nickerson Gardens Gym in Watts.<\/p>\n Brian said he\u2019s had fun working with Bryant\u2019s widow, Vanessa Bryant, on those murals, although she can be a tough critic.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s very detailed in terms of \u2018can you make an adjustment here to her nose\u2019 [or] \u2018just tweak her tooth a little bit,\u201d Brian said. \u201cThis is good because she\u2019s after perfection, just like her husband was.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian said he\u2019s used boom lifts and scissor lifts before, but never the swing stage rig that his Long Beach project now requires.<\/p>\n \u201cYou always wonder, \u2018Who are those crazy guys up there washing windows?\u2019 And then you become one of the crazies,\u201d Brian said.<\/p>\n Brian has relied on his Christian faith while he\u2019s sometimes unnerved, suspended in the air, racing to finish the project before he\u2019s scheduled to fly home to Miami on Sunday.<\/p>\n Brian and his wife found religion a decade ago after a series of deaths in their respective families.<\/p>\n While reading a non-fiction Christian book, he was inspired to introduce himself to a homeless man nearby who would often scream outside Brian\u2019s Santa Ana apartment.<\/p>\n That led to Brian painting the man\u2019s portrait and eventually painting murals on various homeless shelters throughout Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cIt almost feels like fate in a way, like I was supposed to be here,\u201d Brian said. \u201cEight years ago, that was a seed and the seed has been watered for eight years. Now we have a tree that\u2019s 12 stories tall.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/23jul25-7-23-25-walls-6-939394-avmdone6-424831-IGhMWREc-1024x614.jpg\")
Brian Peterson looks at his mural as he and his brother come down from the scaffolding only twice a day to view their mural from street level. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/23jul25-7-23-25-walls-1-410886-rbbws7du-291369-lKKwVm6J-1024x649.jpg\")
Pedestrians cross Pine Avenue at Ocean Boulevard, passing by Brian Peterson\u2019s mural on the side of the Marriott. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n