UPDATE, APRIL 18, 5:03 P.M.: Mural painter-overer Marlowe Huber wants to help repair the damage, offering a monetary contribution towards the mural's restoration and organizing fundraisers to launch a new mural, according to Laguna Beach Patch.
He told the media outlet that that his reason for removing the mural was to clean up the space so that the city might approve a sign that advertised the winery. Laguna College of Art and Design president Dennis Power has also received an offer from the winery's property owner, Steve Henry, to help with the new mural project, planned for next winter. Power called the mural paint-over a “regrettable mistake.”
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landmark work of art on Laguna Canyon Road is now a dull gray wall
after a paint job by a winery owner who apparently didn't want it
adorning his business.
bold-colored landscape featuring a bear, an eagle and an adult and child
holding hands, was designed and painted in 2003 by students of Laguna
College of Art & Design.
disheartened,” she says. “I think that's the best word to describe it. I
don't see the sense of it–to blatantly and knowingly do something like
this. It's criminal.”
The mural, which Tavonatti says was the largest in Orange County when it went up, graced the side wall of Laguna Canyon Winery, a tenant in a building owned by Steve Henry. According to the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot, the tenants had applied to put signage on the wall, but the application had been denied due to the wall's status as a public work of art, protected by the city. City cultural arts manager Siân Poeschl first noticed the mural was gone at the end of February. Henry was surprised, as the lease agreement made it clear that the mural was public property, the Coastline Pilot reports.
