Restoration In Progress

Four years ago I won a National competition to paint a mural that is located in downtown New Port Richey, Florida. It was the first mural that the city had ever had painted and one they had waited 8 years for. I was proud to have won the competition and I still am. There are now 5 murals in the city, each of which are very unique and beautifully rendered. I am lucky to have painted two of them.

A few weeks ago I took some out of town guests to see the murals and was horrified to see the condition of the NPR mural. It is based on New Port Richey during the 1920's and has a number of old buildings, movie stars, cars, posters and stuff through out the mural. One of the actors is Charlie Chaplan who has just walked out of a building onto the street. Charlie is wearing a baggy suit that was typical attire for the charming comedian. Someone decided that he needed an appendage between his legs, so they scratched a large one on him with a sharp object. Not far from him is an elderly woman reading to a child. The woman is the owner of the building's Mother that passed away years ago, and the child is his daughter. Someone vomited on the woman and scuffed the section with shoes, chairs and hard objects that ruined the paint. It is heartbreaking to see that anyone could damage something so special.

The entire bottom portion of the mural has damage of some sort and it's ONLY 4 years old! I've never had one of my murals treated so disrespectfully before, and I have numerous public murals that are seen weekly by hundreds of people.

Yesterday, I began the restoration process. First I cleaned the entire wall, let it dry then began surveying the true damage. I will need to repaint the entire bottom portion because the damage is excessive and the paint has oxidized. Oxidation of paint is a normal process that all murals experience regardless of location. Matching oxidized paint takes a lot of time, I could easily spend a few months matching the old paint. I would do this if the damage was less, but it isn't so I've opted to repaint all the areas that are damaged.

I love painting! The neat thing is that I've discovered my painting skills have changed since creating the wall four years ago. My brush work is more painterly now and the color is bolder than before. I like what I'm doing, I only hope that the city likes it as well. I also hope that in the future they take better precautions and protect the wall during special events. Most of the damage was caused during these events. I know this because I can see where the backs of chairs and tables have scraped the wall. There are huge black marks that resemble tires, perhaps from bicycles or skate boards. There is substantial damage caused from people standing with a foot on the wall, these areas scraped the paint down to the concrete. The wall is a mess and it upsets me that I have to repaint everything.