DOWNEY — Over its 10-year lifespan upon Porto’s Bakery’s parking structure wall, it’s hard to argue that Downey Doodle-icious – a Downey-centric mural highlighting some of the city’s iconic landmarks, businesses, schools, and people - has become ingrained into Downey’s very fabric and culture.

Though the piece now shows signs of sun damage and weather beating, passersby can still be frequently seen taking pictures of and admiring the artwork. Several cornerstone businesses and leaders have prints hanging in their offices and stores. And yes, it’s even a popular backdrop for political hopefuls come election season.

On Downey Doodle-icious you’ll find nods to City Hall, the Downey Theatre, the Columbia Memorial Space Center, Downey Police and Fire Departments, and the Rives Mansion. Longstanding businesses like Stox, El Taco, Del Rio Lanes, Porto’s Bakery, and the Downey Patriot all have a presence, while references to Downey Studios, All American Home Center, and Wenzels Music Town Records provide glimpses of what once was. Downey and Warren high schools are both represented. You’ll also find references to the first Taco Bell, the oldest operating McDonald’s, and Downey’s musical products like the Blasters and The Carpenters.

Doodle-icious’s painter Don Lamkin doesn’t consider himself an artist; not professionally, anyway. And, surpringly, Downey Doodle-icious was never meant to be a mural.

Lamkin – who served on the Downey Museum of Art’s board of directors — says that Downey Doodle-icious’s original purpose was as a painting to be raffled off to raise money for the now ill-fated museum. At the time, the museum’s collection of art was being held in a storage unit in Bell Gardens.

“We were out of money,” said Lamkin. “The street faire was coming up, so I volunteered to do some kind of painting to raffle it off to pay storage rent.”

At the suggestion of friend and fellow art enthusiast George Manzanilla, Lamkin would put a Downey spin on a previous project, called Doodle-icious.

“It was such a small canvas. It was silly and what I thought was meaningless. I would just watch TV and doodle, and then I painted it, and it was this tiny little thing,” said Lamkin. “George suggested that I do that same street art style piece, but with all Downey related stuff. So, the idea wasn’t even mine, it was George Manzanilla’s idea.”

Naturally, not everything or everybody could be included in the piece. Lamkin says that he chose things that were “important to me in Downey.”

“I was born in ‘62, so a lot of the later 60’s and through the 70’s, early 80’s; that was my time,” said Lamkin. “There’s a lot of things I that I couldn’t put on there that were super important to me, but you’d run out of room.”

When the time came for the raffle, Lamkin decided that he didn’t want to part with the original piece, for fear that it would end up with someone that wouldn’t appreciate it.

He says the mural taught him a lot about community pride.

“I’m picturing a raffle, and people from out of town that might live in a neighboring city or something might win the thing in a raffle. I got to be honest, if I won something that was Bellflower-centric, Paramount-centric, Bell Gardens-centric, I don’t have a connection,” said Lamkin.

Instead, he decided to have a print made. He was later convinced to have 10 prints printed to cut costs.

“Of course, I’m out like $2,500 in prints and frames, and I’m going, ‘Damn, this stuff is going to collect dust in my garage like the other art that I’ve done.”

Except, they didn’t. While the raffled-off piece collected over $1,100, the other artist proof prints sold in around two hours.

One of those prints – number four – went to then two-time Mayor Mario Guerra.

“I just thought it represented so much of Downey history, and it was more for the old-timers,” said Guerra. “If you look at Doodle-icious, some young people may not recognize some of the things that are up there; Wenzel’s Records, and a couple of other things.

“Some things you’ll recognize, and some things are newer. The Porto’s is newer, stuff like that. That to me, it touched a nerve in a good way; it touched my heart.”

Guerra had bigger plans than just hanging his own copy on his wall.

“He asked if I could do a mural of that image,” said Lamkin. “I’d never done a mural, but of course I said, ‘Sure. Yeah, I can do a mural. Hold your breath for a minute while I figure out how.’”

Except the mayor and the artist disagreed on where the mural should go. Lamkin, who admitted some discomfort over his work getting such a spotlight, wanted to hide the piece in an alley across from where the mural eventually ended up.

“A lot of things in this mural are very personal to me: my home address when I was a kid, a dog, a chicken, a tortoise, you know, my pets. Me riding a bike. It’s a little corny,” said Lamkin. “I really did not ever plan on that being a public thing, that prints of it are in other countries.”

But Guerra wouldn’t have that.

“I didn’t want it to be hidden… I wanted to be visual,” said Guerra, who is still pushing for more murals throughout the downtown. “With Porto’s here, 7,000 people a day come here. They park there, but they’re around the downtown. I wanted a visual moment. I wanted a feeling. I wanted to touch people. I wanted something special there.”

Guerra worked to help secure the Porto’s parking lot wall to be used, and was still mayor when the project was approved by city council.

Don Lamkin, Liz Moran, Hector Beltran and Jorge Del Toro at the Downey Doodle-icious dedication in 2015. (Photo by Joan Anderson)

It took about 40 days for Lamkin and his team – Liz Moran, Hector Beltran, and Jorge Del Toro – to put the mural up. When it was dedicated on Dec. 31, 2015, it was a week after Guerra had termed out of office, meaning that he was ironically left off the dedication plaque.

“It’s a bit of ego, but more for the history standpoint, you’re like, ‘God, I’m out of office for a week and one my favorite things I worked on [I didn’t get recognized for],” said Guerra. “It’s okay though, I don’t need the recognition.”

A celebration of Downey Doodle-icious’s anniversary is currently planned for Jan. 30 at 3:30 pm at the mural site, where Mayor Hector Sosa is anticipated to present Lamkin with a certificate and give a few words.

Sosa expressed excitement for the ceremony, calling Downey Doodle-icious “an iconic masterpiece” that “exemplifies the spirit and rich history of Downey.”

“Holding a ceremony in recognition of [Downey Doodle-icious’s] 10th year anniversary gives the public an opportunity to hear directly from Don Lamkin,” said Sosa. “It will give Lamkin an opportunity to shed some light on the inspiration and vision behind this iconic mural.”

In the meantime, Lamkin continues to sell prints of Downey Doodle-icious, having sold over 300. And while there may be possibility for a second Downey Doodle-icious in the future, at the moment Lamkin is simply enjoying the unexpected success of the original.

“I had no aspirations of [Downey Doodle-icious] being a public art piece,” said Lamkin. “I’m thrilled. I’m humbled. I’m speechless a little bit, and it just keeps popping up; that image, it just keeps popping up.”

10 years later, Downey Doodle-icious is ingrained in city’s culture