When New York street artist Andaluz finished his Costa Mesa mural honoring Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others who lost their lives in a Jan. 26, 2020, helicopter crash, he dedicated it to a state that was still mourning the loss of one of its icons.
“I truly hope this piece brings some comfort to all of those that were affected by this tragedy,” Andaluz wrote in an Instagram post Feb. 24, 2020, upon finishing the project, adding “This one is for you Cali. From New York with love.”
Five years later, Andaluz’s loving depiction of Kobe and Gigi in that mural is going worldwide. That portrait of a stoic Bryant with his daughter resting her head on top of his is being used as the cover art for the upcoming book “Mamba & Mambacita Forever.”
The book — written by Bryant’s wife and Gianna’s mother Vanessa Bryant and photographed by longtime Bryant and NBA photographer Andrew Bernstein — will feature images and stories of more than 100 murals around the globe honoring the beloved father and daughter.
“Wow my mural made the cover of the Kobe & Gigi mural book Vanessa Bryant is putting out,” Andaluz wrote on Instagram on Wednesday, the same day Vanessa made the book’s announcement and four days before the five-year anniversary of the crash in Calabasas.
“I’m truly appreciative to the Bryant family, @kobemural , @lakers organization and all of my supporters. Truly blessed. Praise God because he is the hearer of prayers.”
The book is slated to be released Aug. 19, days before what would have been Bryant’s 47th birthday (Aug. 23) and what has become known as Mamba Day (Aug. 24 because of Bryant’s two jersey numbers 8 and 24). It will be published by MCD Books, which also published Bryant’s “The Mamba Mentality: How I Play” in 2018.
“‘Mamba & Mambacita Forever’ ensures that the murals of Kobe and Gianna Bryant will live on even after the most monumental murals themselves have all crumbled,” the publisher wrote Wednesday on Instagram.
