The Long Way to Hollywood

This picture was inspired by P-22, a male mountain lion who lived in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

He is believed to have left the western Santa Monica Mountains while still young and travelled east toward the Hollywood Hills, somehow crossing both the heavily trafficked 405 and 101 freeways along the way. In early 2012, a wildlife camera set up in Griffith Park captured him for the first time. He would remain there for the next ten years, living in a pocket of wilderness surrounded by highways, houses, and the lights of Los Angeles. Before long, people had begun calling him the “Hollywood Cat.”

His entire home range covered only about eight square miles, remarkably little territory for an adult male mountain lion. Millions of people lived below the hills, yet there was almost never another mountain lion beside him. P-22 was mostly active at night, occasionally passing close to nearby homes or appearing at the edge of a security-camera recording. Many people knew that he lived just above the city, though very few ever saw him with their own eyes.

His story came to an end in the winter of 2022. By the time P-22 was found, he was old and had suffered severe injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle, along with several chronic health problems. After a full examination, the veterinary team recommended that he be euthanized. He was thought to be around twelve years old.

P-22 himself was male. I chose to portray the character as female simply because that was how I wanted to imagine her.

I pictured those years as the life of a solitary traveller who had already come a very long way. She is not in any particular hurry. Perhaps she has walked this road many times before, enough to remember which patch of city lights will appear beyond every bend.