Nob Hill graffiti mural vandalized

Posted at: 10/18/2009 6:11 AM | Updated at: 10/18/2009 6:43 AM
By: Kayla Anderson Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

A group of graffiti artists say someone has it out for them—instead of spraypainting on railcars, the artists use a building near Nob Hill as their canvass for a huge outdoor mural.

Early Saturday morning, the mural was vandalized and destroyed.

The wall was covered in colorful graffiti art. The artists have permission to paint the wall, and say it’s a way to showcase their work.

They had to paint over it with primer after someone threw green paint all over the wall, ruining their artwork.

David Abeita painfully lapped primer over his own artwork.

Abeita said the vandalism, “Just makes me mad. All the hard work I did up there, gone.”

Early Saturday morning, someone drove up in a green car and threw green paint across the mural—destroying dozens of paintings by various graffiti artists from around the state.

Artist Michelle Lente said, “Spend so much time on it and they just go ahead and scrape it out, like it's nothing.”

Abeita said, “All the time wasted, all the color, all the detail, climbing, everything- just gone”

Bill Richardson is a guitar repair shop owner near the community mural.

He says when he came into work, he saw someone painting on the mural, but didn’t realize what was going on until it was too late.

Richardson said, “I realized he's not adding to it at all. It was a mess. And he just drove away.”

Richardson says it’s sad someone would ruin the community project.

He says the mural has become a well-known landmark for the neighborhood, and provides a safe place for graffiti artists to do their art.

“There's no parties, nobody's high, nobody's goofy, they're all out there just really jazzed about painting,” Richardson said.

The artists say they’ll continue using the wall as a canvass. They’ll be back out at Noon, Sunday, to create a new mural.

Print Story