Four murals in Clarion Alley, the iconic Mission District’s passage with over 50 murals connecting Mission and Valencia streets, were painted over last week.
Three of the murals were completely painted over and one partially. A representative from Clarion Alley Mural Project, which manages the alley, said the murals can be restored, but the cost is unclear.
The incident happened last Monday when a neighbor saw a man painting over the murals.
The neighbor, Doug Rhodes, an artist who has a studio on Clarion Alley, said that by the time he saw the man, he was on his fourth mural.
“Hey you can’t do that,” Rhodes told the man.
“My boss told me to,” the man replied as he continued painting.
Rhodes said he then took the paint and put it away inside a nearby building. The man made a phone call and left the scene. It’s unclear what boss he was referring to.
A representative from Clarion Alley Mural Project said that the organization reached out to Makras Real Estate, the company that manages the building where the murals were painted over, and received an email stating that the property owner ordered an employee to paint over some reported “graffiti.”
“CAMP has had both written and verbal agreements/understandings with property owners and landlords regarding murals on Clarion Alley for 34, going on 35 years,” read a statement from Clarion Alley Mural Project.
At the moment, it’s unclear whether CAMP has a written agreement for 3331 17th St. The organization, however, does have a verbal agreement with all the landlords/property owners where they have murals throughout the alley. The property’s owners haven’t changed since 2001. The owner of 3331 17th St is listed as Guerrero V Espinoza Trust in city records.
The murals painted over include “We’re all in this together,” a memorial for activist and artist Kirsten Brydum painted in 2016 by John Viola; “Everything Must Go,” a tribute to Adobe Book’s former home at 3166 16th St., painted in 2015 by Daniel Doherty; a tribute to local graffiti artist Chloe a.k.a. Marfa by Floyd; and a mural completed this spring by students from Graffiti Camp for Girls, a local organization training young women in creating public art.
Rhodes later painted over the blank space “Mural In Progress” while the murals get restored. So far, only the space for Graffiti Camp for Girls has been reclaimed.
Veronica Torres, one of the co-directors of Clarion Alley Mural Project, said that the cost of restoring the mural will vary depending on the mural. Two weeks before the incident, the organization launched a $35,000 fundraiser to restore murals, sustain the organization for the next year and clean up the alley.
Last year, a landlord ordered to paint over Chuy Campusano’s 33-year-old mural, which was later restored by family members and friends. The mural was graffitied again earlier this year.
Torres met with the District 9 office last week to explore ways in which the city can support the organization at the moment.
“The destruction of these iconic murals is devastating and we hope that it was an inadvertent mistake that can be remedied quickly,” said Jennifer Ferrigno, a legislative aide to District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder. “Our office is ready to support our community partners to restore the artwork and care for this historic alley.”
The murals are great color and of great significance. They are a tourist attraction. Thanks for highlighting this vandalism. Thank you Mission Local and Supervisor Fielder for helping to get the murals restored!
Although I can understand people missing such murals, the owners of the subject properties are fully entitled to paint their buildings if they so choose. Any prior “agreement” to preserve them isn’t binding but rather is just a discretionary and temporary favor. Presumably in this case a building owner simply hanged his or her mind.
Wonderful energy in that Alley,
It’s dangerous at times and filthy almost always and radiates through you from all sides as your mind deals with the contradiction of wonderful art sitting over piles of crap and broken glass and clothing an furniture as it is a dump.
The Adobe Books mural features a guy named Swan who fed the birds in front of the place and wrote stories in tiny script as he leaned against the wall.
Once I laid five bucks on him and he looked at it and called me back and gave me one of his hand written missives which is around here somewhere like my mind.
lol
Legend was that Swan had been the Bureau Chief for the New York Times in London or Paris or something and decided he’s rather stop taking his meds and go with his own personal flow which included feeding the birds and writing.
He didn’t want to live indoors and when well wishers got him under a roof it never lasted and it was back to the front of Adobe books and I think he was still alive when Manny’s opened and worked on the sidewalk there.
The Alley, for me, has more energy than any place in town because of the ever changing murals which are tagged with horse shit by the cops on the Valencia outlet where Mission station sits and resent murals defaming them and junior gang bangers on the Mission end looking to score some creds.
Both groups are violent killers whose forces meet there with the alley as a kind of Korea type DMZ.
Fortuitous that the ‘white out’ stopped just shy of Swan.
go Niners !!
h.
It is beyond obtuse to paint over murals in an alley full of murals because someone said you should. I understand you’re given a job to do but… The murals are not graffiti. I hope the building owner/Makras realizes this only gives them negative publicity… Maybe throw some money at Precita Eyes after doing some groveling.
Campers,
Doug Rhodes is kinda the unofficial watchman of the alley as well as being its only resident artist I think and I got into a conversation with him about my idea to close the alley and make it for art only with maybe a few benches and a Decaux toilet.
It is the only alley in City with no public utilities under it and no trash pickup or assigned DPW route and I have a stack of years old 311 requests addressing those issues.
Anyway, Doug said if they closed it even with the removeable steel posts, the owners couldn’t get their vehicles in and would rescind their permission for their legal ‘canvasses’ as it were.
I have hundreds and perhaps even a thousand pics and and a few videos I’ve done there over the years so the best thing I’m thinking is to just keep recording the work and the artists at work (better than a movie trust me) which is ongoing and fascinating to watch …
Gangs and cops and great artists and taggers and brave and horney tourists (the hotels’ lit tells the tourists it’s dangerous and that only encourages them) …
I met Mike Tyson there one 4th of July and he came over and shook my hand because I was working in a pile of shit and weeds I’d gathered and was making a compost heap. He was with a couple of Indian I think film makers he was shilling for.
Other posters are doubtlessly right that owners can bail from the agreements so let’s just all enjoy it while we can cause a great man once said:
“You take what the defense gives you.”
lol
go Niners !!
h.
It’s closed for parties sometimes and better than Mardi Gras.
I’m glad you covered this and included the original murals. This is a very important piece of Mission history and culture. Makras Real Estate is in the wrong.
No you don’t get to destroy a public art installation because your “boss” tells you to. This is a serious act of vandalism.
He painted someone’s private property at the behest of the property owner. The owner does have the right to rescind any prior agreement with the gestapo at any time they want. It is PRIVATE property.
Agreed John. The “permission” that the artist requested and received was to paint the mural in the first place. That was granted.
But that permission does not imply that the artwork will be there forever. After all, the building might be sold and the new owner hates the mural. They are ultimately his or her walls to do with as the owner pleases.
Any artist who paints something on someone else’s property should know that the art persists at the whim and discretion of the owner.