Project Description
In his richly detailed, storybook-style illustration, artist J Michael Walker brings Sun Valley’s native beauty to life — from golden California poppies to wise barn owls and watchful coyotes under a glowing moon. At the heart of the piece is the prickly pear cactus, a symbol that gestures to the region’s rich heritage. The Tongva called this region Wixánga, which means “canyon of the thorns” in the language’s Fernandeño dialect. The Spanish, following the Tongva’s lead, called the region La Cañada de las Tunas. This artwork doesn’t just depict a place — it tells its story about its origins.
Whether you come to spend the whole day or are just passing through, Sun Valley invites you to slow down, look closely, and reconnect with the natural rhythms of Los Angeles.
This artwork was commissioned for Metro’s Through the Eyes of Artists poster series for display in the fleet.
Artist Statement
“I hope families, especially children, will enjoy exploring all the teeming details, pointing out and naming animals and plants, maybe even inventing stories together… This artwork is a celebration of how nature, people, and place are all connected.”
About the Artist
J MICHAEL WALKER is an LA-based multi-disciplinary artist whose work in painting, drawing, photography, and digital media marries portraiture with historical research to honor Black and Latina women and other marginalized people.
He has received over a dozen fellowships, grants, and residencies in the US and Brazil; and has exhibited widely, in galleries and museums in the United States, Mexico, South Korea, and Senegal, including solo exhibitions at the Autry Museum of the American West and the Mexican Cultural Institute, both in Los Angeles; Harvard University’s Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; the Yale Institute of Sacred Music; and el Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, in Mexico City.
J Michael’s work is in the permanent collections of Musée Boribana, Dakar, Senegal; the Japanese American National Museum of Los Angeles; the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA; the Autry Museum of the American West; the Smithsonian Museum of American History; the Arkansas Arts Center; and the Special Collections Library of UCLA.
His book, All the Saints of the City of the Angels: Seeking the Soul of LA on Its Streets (Heyday Books, 2008) – which he both wrote and illustrated – won awards for best art book and best non-fiction book about the Pacific West, in 2009.
J Michael and his wife have resided in northeast Los Angeles for over thirty years.
About Through the Eyes of Artists
In the tradition of celebrating transportation through colorful travel destination posters, Metro Art commissions a diverse range of Los Angeles artists to create original artworks for the Through the Eyes of Artists poster series. Established in 2003, the posters are displayed onboard Metro trains and buses.
View other works in the series.
Display year: 2025