The last tribute — a $250,000 bronze sculpture — is being readied for the famous Hollywood Cat, P-22.
Lovers of beloved P-22, aka the Hollywood Cat, are readying his final close-up, a life-sized sculpture of the world famous mountain lion made of bronze.
The popular cougar who crossed two freeways and made L.A.’s Griffith Park his unlikely home for 10 years, and lived amidst 10 million yearly visitors before he died in December 2022, will be memorialized in a bronze statue at the hands of Los Angeles-based artist Adam Matano.
The cost of the sculpture is upwards of $250 million, said Gerry Hans, president of Friends of Griffith Park. The Friends of Griffith Park, #SaveLAcougars.org and The National Wildlife Federation, are footing the bill and seeking sponsors and donations.
Matano’s conceptual designs depict the peripatetic cougar stepping down from a rectangular base onto the ground. A back relief will depict the park’s wild animals such as gray foxes and coyotes, as well as natural plants, Hans said.
“He shows a large amount of movement, momentum maybe,” said Hans on Friday, Oct. 31. “The movement could represent him coming to Griffith Park and that he’s part of the habitat.”
P-22 became famous for miraculously managing to cross both the 405 and 101 freeways to reach his roaming grounds — an eight-square-mile city park. During his 10 years there, he was seen on trail cameras and became well known to the larger public by night-time video captures, TV footage, newspaper articles and social media posts of him prowling in the park — a first for the more than 100-year-old city park.
“For me, P-22’s movement was everything,” said Beth Pratt, California regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation and leader of #SaveLACougars campaign.
