Post by Okwes on Dec 28, 2007 11:44:55 GMT -5
Breaking news: Port Angeles mural cleaned of hate epithets, vandalism
This devil-like face and blacked out faces on Native American characters were part of the mural desecration in Port Angeles in this photo taken before the vandalism was removed today. -- Photo by Peggy Wesley
By Paige dickerson, Peninsula Daily News
Updated 3 p.m.
PORT ANGELES -- A mural depicting 18th-century Port Angeles Native Americans was cleaned today of spray-painted vandalism, including racial epithets, obscenities and a "white power declaration.
Doc Reiss, a member of the Nor'wester Rotary Club which in 1998 commissioned the mural at the entrance to City Pier, said volunteers spent about two hours scrubbing the black spray paint off the mural, leaving only slight damage to the characterization of the Klallam waterfront village.
Muralist Cory Ench will be retained to touch up the work, Reiss said.
A complete report on the mural cleanup and police investigation will appear in Wednesday's editions of the Peninsula Daily News.
Earlier report:
PORT ANGELES - Faces of Native Americans depicted on a scene of the Ennis Creek waterfront that would become east Port Angeles are blacked out.
A "white power" declaration is painted over the canoes.
Obscenities and racial slurs cover the canoes and other depictions of a serene Klallam village of Y'ennis around 1750.
A crudely drawn devil face seemingly floats in the sky.
The nine-year-old mural on the outside of the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Lab building near City Pier is covered with these depictions, but is covered with huge tarpaulin since the vandalism was discovered Friday.
The faces of the people in the painting are based on real members of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, many of whom are still alive.
But the incident is not being investigated by Port Angeles police as a hate crime, Police Chief Terry Gallagher said.
"A hate crime is usually directed toward a person, and this is a piece of property," he said of the mural, painted by Port Townsend artist Cory Ench for Nor'wester Rotary Club and unveiled in 1998.
The mural and a companion mural showing the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony about 100 years later were painted at a cost of about $25,000.
The second mural was not vandalized.
"It is too bad that something like this had to take place," said Frances Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
"We are hoping that we can restore the painting as much as we can.
"We really feel it is attacking some of the elders that are still with us and some that have passed before.
Surveillance video
Port Angeles police began reviewing surveillance video from stationary City Pier security cameras Monday which revealed two people painting the racial slurs.
The mural was defaced at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Officer Brian Raymond said Monday.
The surveillance video reviewed so far is from City Pier and an adjacent parking lot and did not show the faces of either vandal, Raymond said.
"One of them looks to be male, but you couldn't tell on the other one," he said.
No suspects have been identified.
Muralist Ench, contact Monday at his Port Townsend home, said he would come to Port Angeles if his time allowed and if he was financially supported.
But the spray paint could probably be removed using acetone and cotton rags, he said.
"Anybody could do that," Ench said.
Because the painting was sealed, the acetone shouldn't hurt the rest of the mural, Ench said.
Doc Reiss of Nor'Wester Rotary Club, which funded the mural, said he will test the solution today to see if it will clean off the spray paint.
Called police
Peggy Wesley, herself an artist, and her husband, Paul, were leaving the nearby Port Angeles CrabHouse on Friday morning when they spotted the defaced mural and called police.
"As an artist, it made me sick because it was one really well-painted mural which took a lot of money and time," Wesley said.
"The faces of all of the people were blacked out, and it had hate all over.
"It had this little devil face on it."
"It got covered up very quick with the tarp, which I was happy about, so that people wouldn't see."
Before police arrived and covered the mural, she took pictures to document the damage.
Although the police have received several phone calls from people who have suffered similar slurs on their property, the incidents are not believed to be related, Raymond said.
"Most notably this one wasn't 'signed' as those were," he said.
Police have not made a damage estimate.
"It will be in the felony range, though," Raymond said.
"It will certainly be more than $1,500 in damage."
'Don't like history'
"[The vandalism] is really pathetic," Ench said.
"I guess some people just don't like history."
Ench also painted the mural depicting the ferry Kalakala's heyday in Port Angeles.
That mural is located on the Bank of America building on Laurel Street downtown.
Similar vandalism done to the Kalakala mural about five years ago cost about $5,000 to repair.
"I believe it had been spray-painted as well," Reiss said.
"I do know it was nothing that needed to be tarped."
In January and February Port Angeles city crews installed surveillance cameras at City Pier, Francis Street Park and Erickson Playfield as a collaborate effort between the police and parks departments.
________
Reporter Paige dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
This devil-like face and blacked out faces on Native American characters were part of the mural desecration in Port Angeles in this photo taken before the vandalism was removed today. -- Photo by Peggy Wesley
By Paige dickerson, Peninsula Daily News
Updated 3 p.m.
PORT ANGELES -- A mural depicting 18th-century Port Angeles Native Americans was cleaned today of spray-painted vandalism, including racial epithets, obscenities and a "white power declaration.
Doc Reiss, a member of the Nor'wester Rotary Club which in 1998 commissioned the mural at the entrance to City Pier, said volunteers spent about two hours scrubbing the black spray paint off the mural, leaving only slight damage to the characterization of the Klallam waterfront village.
Muralist Cory Ench will be retained to touch up the work, Reiss said.
A complete report on the mural cleanup and police investigation will appear in Wednesday's editions of the Peninsula Daily News.
Earlier report:
PORT ANGELES - Faces of Native Americans depicted on a scene of the Ennis Creek waterfront that would become east Port Angeles are blacked out.
A "white power" declaration is painted over the canoes.
Obscenities and racial slurs cover the canoes and other depictions of a serene Klallam village of Y'ennis around 1750.
A crudely drawn devil face seemingly floats in the sky.
The nine-year-old mural on the outside of the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Lab building near City Pier is covered with these depictions, but is covered with huge tarpaulin since the vandalism was discovered Friday.
The faces of the people in the painting are based on real members of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, many of whom are still alive.
But the incident is not being investigated by Port Angeles police as a hate crime, Police Chief Terry Gallagher said.
"A hate crime is usually directed toward a person, and this is a piece of property," he said of the mural, painted by Port Townsend artist Cory Ench for Nor'wester Rotary Club and unveiled in 1998.
The mural and a companion mural showing the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony about 100 years later were painted at a cost of about $25,000.
The second mural was not vandalized.
"It is too bad that something like this had to take place," said Frances Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
"We are hoping that we can restore the painting as much as we can.
"We really feel it is attacking some of the elders that are still with us and some that have passed before.
Surveillance video
Port Angeles police began reviewing surveillance video from stationary City Pier security cameras Monday which revealed two people painting the racial slurs.
The mural was defaced at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Officer Brian Raymond said Monday.
The surveillance video reviewed so far is from City Pier and an adjacent parking lot and did not show the faces of either vandal, Raymond said.
"One of them looks to be male, but you couldn't tell on the other one," he said.
No suspects have been identified.
Muralist Ench, contact Monday at his Port Townsend home, said he would come to Port Angeles if his time allowed and if he was financially supported.
But the spray paint could probably be removed using acetone and cotton rags, he said.
"Anybody could do that," Ench said.
Because the painting was sealed, the acetone shouldn't hurt the rest of the mural, Ench said.
Doc Reiss of Nor'Wester Rotary Club, which funded the mural, said he will test the solution today to see if it will clean off the spray paint.
Called police
Peggy Wesley, herself an artist, and her husband, Paul, were leaving the nearby Port Angeles CrabHouse on Friday morning when they spotted the defaced mural and called police.
"As an artist, it made me sick because it was one really well-painted mural which took a lot of money and time," Wesley said.
"The faces of all of the people were blacked out, and it had hate all over.
"It had this little devil face on it."
"It got covered up very quick with the tarp, which I was happy about, so that people wouldn't see."
Before police arrived and covered the mural, she took pictures to document the damage.
Although the police have received several phone calls from people who have suffered similar slurs on their property, the incidents are not believed to be related, Raymond said.
"Most notably this one wasn't 'signed' as those were," he said.
Police have not made a damage estimate.
"It will be in the felony range, though," Raymond said.
"It will certainly be more than $1,500 in damage."
'Don't like history'
"[The vandalism] is really pathetic," Ench said.
"I guess some people just don't like history."
Ench also painted the mural depicting the ferry Kalakala's heyday in Port Angeles.
That mural is located on the Bank of America building on Laurel Street downtown.
Similar vandalism done to the Kalakala mural about five years ago cost about $5,000 to repair.
"I believe it had been spray-painted as well," Reiss said.
"I do know it was nothing that needed to be tarped."
In January and February Port Angeles city crews installed surveillance cameras at City Pier, Francis Street Park and Erickson Playfield as a collaborate effort between the police and parks departments.
________
Reporter Paige dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.