by Steven Foster
Photos by Dalton DeHart
The paint was barely dry on artist Cody Ledvina’s painstaking recreation of the iconic Mary’s Mural. In the mysterious dark of Montrose on Friday morning, June 24, a vandal took silver paint and a bigoted brush to the crotches of all of the characters populating the painting. Bulging Levis, black leather pants, and skin-tight Wranglers were each brandished with a big fat X. The most prominent “woman” in the painting was given odd approval with a check mark. Which goes to show that the misguided Matisse isn’t only a jerk, he’s an idiot, as it’s widely believed the woman in the blue dress is probably the portrait of a drag queen, given the subject matter of the work. Unless it’s some odd anti-penis pro-transgender agenda and, if so, back to art school, buddy.
Not one to cry over spilled paint, Ledvina immediately went to work scouring off the censoring symbols, feverishly repainting the vandalized waists of all the characters involved. Everyone at the parade would have been able to marvel at the mural, now returned to its former glory—that is, if a big truck hadn’t parked in front of it during the festivities. Ledvina’s mural is a collaboration with The Joanna, a Montrose art collective involved in recreating the Mary’s mural in time for the Pride Parade, and can be seen until the new owners make public their plans for the legendary gay bar’s old bones.
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