Venice boardwalk art, memorials replacing rampage evidence

Locals, visitors and passersby paused for a few moments on the Venice boardwalk Monday to remember victims of a hit-and-run that killed one and injured 11 others.

About 25 feet north of where sources allege that suspect Nathan Campbell barreled his car onto the boardwalk, artist Shelly Gomez threw a canvas onto the sidewalk and invited visitors to “Help create a canvas of ‘Love + Light’ for the family of Alice from the entire Venice Beach Community.”

Alice Gruppioni, 32, an Italian tourist on her honeymoon, was fatally struck by the car.

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Splashes of orange, neon-green and yellow filled the canvas by early afternoon. One man brushed “Love” in pink onto a blot of orange. Others drew hearts. Some, like Tim Mendelson, 52, of West L.A., simply lets his brush glide.

“This feels good,” he said. “Things have gotten so senseless. This is so much more positive.”

Gomez echoed Mendelson, saying she got the idea for the art Monday morning when she overheard members of the media camped out focusing on the suspect. She wanted to refocus the discussion.

“To me, it’s about ‘How do we move on from this?’” she said. “Of course we’re all artists, so why don’t we do a collective expression we can send to the family so they have a different memory of Venice?”

Gomez was in the same spot Saturday when police say Campbell, 38, drove through crowds on the Venice boardwalk Saturday evening.

“After the car started hitting all these people, it was like a video game,” Gomez said, stressing that people ran to help one another.

She sat with Gruppioni’s husband and told him to try to stay calm. But “he was just screaming for his wife. He was just very distraught,” she said.

Monday morning, Gomez visited the makeshift memorial just a short walk from her art display. Hours later, Venice resident Carlos Galin, 51, and his daughter Sienna, 7, stopped by to pay their respects.

“It could have been much, much worse,” Carlos Galin said.

His daughter had a question.

“Why do cars come in here?” she asked while stroking her doll’s blond hair.

“They shouldn’t, honey,” her father responded. “They really shouldn’t.”

On Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he will work with Councilman Mike Bonin to engineer the boardwalk entry points in a way that protects the public while still allowing access to emergency vehicles.

He said the city will look at “how to keep better control in Venice” while keeping its character intact.

Video taken from a restaurant on Dudley shows a man believed to be Campbell pacing near a sedan, then getting into the car and suddenly driving forward, out of camera range.

Another video shows the moments that followed: a sedan slamming into unsuspecting pedestrians and ramming a canopy before turning left and speeding down Ocean Front Walk at an hour when many were simply waiting to watch the setting sun.

Witnesses estimated the vehicle’s speed at up to 60 mph. Eleven others, including Gruppioni’s husband, were injured, officials said.

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Twitter: @MattStevensLAT