Initially Carla and Mandon were a bit hesitant to own up to the fact that they had painted #staircandy on the Micheltorena Steps; they were worried they could get arrested. However, the artwork was so well received by the public, we decided that if they were to face legal consequences, it was worth it for creating something so well enjoyed. Their first Instagram post went up on April 24 2015, quietly acknowledging to their minimal followers that they had painted the #staircandy artwork on the Micheltorena steps.

There was minimal tagging or graffiti in the first year, also indicative of the positive response by the public. Sadly, their attempts to take credit did not quite go as planned…

In April 2016 someone sent me a copy of an LA Weekly article written about the popularity of the viral Painted Stairway Tours tours created and led by Dan Gutierrez of SoCal Stair Climbers, which featured #staircandy along with the Silver Lake works of other stairway artists.

Back in 2016, Dan mistakenly thought Corinne Carrey was the designer of #staircandy, and invited her the meet the tour group as they started their walk, and introduced her the creator of #staircandy ‘with the help of some good friends’ and unfortunately for Carla, as an emerging Visual Artist, it stuck Corinne as the artist with little or no mention of her or Mandon for years to come, and without Corinne, for her own reasons, not correcting this.

[Editors note: When Dan spoke to Corinne prior to the events in the LA Weekly article in early 2016, she give him the impression that two friends helped her paint it. He did not know of Carla and Mandon’s role as creators, so he mistakenly attributed the artwork to Corinne, as he was using the tour as a vehicle to give all the contributing artists attention for their works. For all the other painted stairways, there were single artist creators, so it was easy to misinterpret Corinne’s statements about the painting as her being the designer, since she was a professional designer. When Dan found out to his horror in 2022 that Corinne was NOT the designer of #staircandy, he deeply regretted giving the public the impression that #staircandy was designed by her, instead of the actual designers Carla O’Brien and Mandon Bossi. These #staircandy webpages are an attempt, with fantastic support from Carla, to set the record straight.]

2016 LA Weekly Painted Stairways Tour Article – online w/o photos

2016 LA Weekly Painted Stairways Tour Article – PDF file with photos