Vandalized Beto O'Rourke mural restored in East Austin

[TexasTowelie]

An East Austin mural depicting U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke as a superhero has been restored after “El Paso gentrifier” and “imperialist pig” was spray-painted over it last weekend.

Dozens showed up Tuesday to help repaint the mural, which sits in an alleyway between Cesar Chavez and East Second streets, during a cleanup event. The mural went up on the first day of early voting on Oct. 22, but was spray-painted with graffiti days later that included “supports Israel,” and “no hero.” A sign was put up next to the graffiti reading “Vote now love trumps hate.” All the messages were replaced Tuesday night with fresh paint and artist Chris Rogers said he was happy to see the community come together to fix his work, according to a post on his Instagram.

When the mural was defaced, Rogers said on Instagram that the theme of the work was “out of darkness comes the light.” Community members painted over graffiti and revamped the image with a new slogan. “WE RISE” is now displayed next to the image of O’Rourke. According to a news release about the event. O’Rourke left Rogers a voicemail thanking him for bringing the community together.

“What this thing has showed me or allowed me to see is that this is way bigger than me and way bigger than the art and that the most important thing here is community,” Rogers said at the cleanup event.“Because at the end of the day, whoever is going to get elected, we got each other and how we responded to this happening, man, that is like one of the biggest things and the best things I could have been a part of.”

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20181101/vandalized-beto-orourke-mural-restored-in-east-austin

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Man, O'Rourke is a class act! nt

[marble falls]

2. He's kind of like Obama' younger cousin. Love the heck out of both of them.