A pair of good guys repaired a nifty mural done by teens on the ped/bike path beside the Mattapan-Ashmont trolley. Some self-centered jerks has tagged it with their sigs in pink paint, over the art.
I stopped biking to chat with Vincent and Steve doing their magic with pots of paint, blended to match the diverse colors of the original.
| The sneaky schmucks covered much of the mural with pink paint. This is a sample of a section the guys had not finished fixing. |  |
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The elaborate mural is a Native American setting, replete with dugout, vegetable harvest, cooking and river. It has lots of colors, which the men replicated to replace the garish pink tagging. |
| Steve said Vincent was an actual artist and the leader of the restoration project. He was doing what Vincent said and showed. |  |
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Vincent painstakingly restored the smallest and subtlest sections. He noted that he was glad the taggers didn’t have a ladder and more time. |
The mural is just north of the MILTON stop on the trolley. Many hundreds of commuters, walkers and cyclists pass by and can enjoy it daily. (What were those jerks thinking?)
Steve and Vincent said they were working with Boston Natural Area Network (BNAN) in the restoration. They are double good news for all of us. They are volunteering for the effort; it costs nothing to the city or state.
Good on them.
That’s Vincent Crotty! He is in fact a well-known local painter. One of his plein air paintings graces the wall of our living room.
Many thanks, Barbara. That saves me research. I got a good bead on him, but I had to drag out their first names — they were focused on task. I was going to click around until I found him. Do you also know Steve?
I don’t think I know Steve, but with only the back of the head and no last name to go by, I can’t be sure. If they’re working with BNAN there might be a piece about them in the next newsletter.
What really angers me about these morons who deface the hard work of the artists who have created murals along the pedestrian/bike path is that there are stretches of blank wall right by two of the three public artworks.
They could throw up a tag or a piece and it would last a few weeks before it’s painted over, essentially giving someone else a blank ‘canvas’ to use.
Any jerk who tags over the public art is just that, a jerk. He’s not an “artist”, he’s just a pathetic vandal.
I noticed the restoration the other day while I was coming back from Ashmont on the trolley.
Thanks to Steve and Vincent, who took the time and effort to restore that lovely three part mural.
It’s terrible when someone feels the intense need to deface something like this mural. You have to wonder what spite or jealousy inspires such action, because it can’t be anything else. After all, when there are two blank walls nearby, you know the motivation was to actually screw up the artwork itself rather than some desperate attempt to engrave one’s own identity on the world. It’s sad when someone just feels the need to break something beautiful, but it’s wonderful when others are willing to take the time to clean it up and restore it to what it ought to be.
Donald from Fast Weight Loss