Mark MauerFor some reason I thought that the beautiful Retna / Dame / Werc mural in Silver Lake “Por El Suelo” would be there for years. I thought it would still be there long after I left the neighborhood, and that kids would grow up walking past it from the time they were little to the time they were married with their own children.
Not quite.
I don't like to post pictures of the destruction of community art (unless it's done by the City of LA, in which case they need to be called out). I don't like to give the exposure to the vandals. But the defacing of this wall on Virgil is just shocking in its vileness.
Maybe the artists will try to fix this, though I can't imagine how difficult that would be. I know that it's a fact of life for street artists that their work may vanish right away – or stay visible for years – but that has to be really disappointing. At least it is to me, as a resident of the neighborhood.
Pictures of what the mural looked like before after the jump.
All photos by Mark Mauer
Above, Retna working on the mural in early February.
Dame working on his part of the mural.
Click here and here to see the original posts from February, 2008.
All photos and footage by Mark Mauer.
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