When artist Elliott Pinkney of Compton says "art is all around us," he is speaking philosophically.

"It might be in the form of a fine car or a beautiful watch, a fancy suit. It's still a piece of art," he said recently, explaining that he believes art is more than paintings hanging on museum walls.

When Pinkney says that art is "all around" Compton, though, he is probably speaking literally about his work. For years his murals have adorned walls throughout the city.

On freeway underpasses, on public buildings, inside churches and at commercial and industrial sites, Pinkney's murals celebrate the spirit and vitality of people struggling to bring about social change.

"I suppose I was influenced by the Mexican muralists when it came to how they . . . make social statements," Pinkney said. "They were basically where the mural art started so I spent a lot of time studying their work."

Mural Painted on Clinic

"Medicare," a mural Pinkney painted on a county public health clinic at Rosecrans Avenue and Alameda Street, pays homage to the struggle against sickness and pain. An oversized, white-coated figure of a health professional stands in the center of the mural, enfolding smaller portraits of ill and crippled people.

Inside the Dollarhide Neighborhood Center, "Spirits of America" features the Statue of Liberty, along with such American heroes as Abraham Lincoln, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr. and the black educator Mary Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women.

Eight of Pinkney's Compton murals were created a decade ago under a grant from the California Arts Council. Some murals that he painted on the sides of private commercial or industrial buildings have been destroyed as the city redevelops and replaces old structures with new ones.

But the 54-year-old artist, a warm, soft-spoken Georgia native, may get the opportunity to put his signature on one of the city's largest redevelopment projects, the transit center that is under construction on Willowbrook Avenue in the heart of the downtown. City officials have asked him to present a proposal to the City Council for a mural to adorn the inside of the center, which is scheduled to open in 1990 when the light rail line begins operating between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles.

Mural on Civil Rights Leader

The transit center is named after Martin Luther King Jr. and Pinkney wants the mural to be about the life of the civil rights leader.