By Kathy Rowe
Thanks to the quick action of two talented mural artists, Allan Bender and John Nobrega, our community mural has been restored. The graffiti that was painted onto the wall back in April is only a memory that we hope will never be repeated.
John described the way a metallic spray paint behaves when it comes into contact with a rough brick surface. “The spray paint actually gets grounded to the texture of the brick. Even with power washing or solvents, you never really get all the paint out of the little crevices of the brick surface.”
The way in which Allan and John went about the restoration is interesting. Allan began by tracing over the metallic spray paint with a white primer paint. As John explained, “the primer is as much a barrier as it is a covering over of the graffiti. The primer makes the next layer receptive to whatever we put on top of it.”
The mural was originally painted in 2016. When asked about the matching of the aged images on the mural, John emphasized that he painted to the fading of the existing paint. Affected areas were blocked out with the background colours and then the finer details were added to create the final images. The restoration took about five days to complete. We are thrilled to see the excellent results!