SPOKANE, Wash — The Black Lives Matter mural on the side of a downtown Spokane building was vandalized.
KREM’s Brandon Jones noticed the vandalism Wednesday afternoon. The mural is on the side of the Seven2 building on West Main Avenue.
It appears someone threw three different colors of paint on the mural. Spokane police said a report had not been filed.
The building owners told KREM they hope to resolve the issue and put a protective layer on top of the paint. On Wednesday afternoon, the owners were trying to power wash the parts of the mural they could clean off.
Nicholas Sironka is one of the artist that decorated the mural. His design took two days to complete but he believes the vandalism actually adds value to the piece.
He has a reason to be upset but he's choosing to focus on the positives. That includes everyone who made the mural possible and all of the love it has received over these last two weeks.
"There's an African saying, 'I am because we are, we are because I am,'" Sironka said. "There is nothing that you can do to take away this quest by black people now to say this is enough suffering. This is enough injustice. We will sing, we will speak, we will not be violent. Can you imagine an angry person to not be violent, but instead, beautifying buildings?"
This is the second time in July that a mural related to the Black Lives Matter movement was defaced in Spokane.
On July 3, a mural honoring George Floyd was splashed with white paint.
The mural was painted on the back of Shacktown Community Cycle by well-known artist Daniel Lopez, who is known for painting murals in alleys throughout the Spokane area.
On July 10, employees at 14Four + Seven2 finished putting up the words Black Lives Matter, written in white. 14Four President Jeff Oswalt came up with the idea to put the mural up.
Executive Director of Terrain Ginger Ewing found 16 local artists, all of whom are Black, Indigenous and people of color. Each artist got a letter to use as a canvas to share their stories and voice, according to an Instagram post from Seven2. The mural was completed on July 20.
Company leaders said they hope the mural will be one small part of a larger movement both here in Spokane and across the country.