The Great Mural Controversy (Mural Series - #1)

Why would this beautiful mural on the wall of a local business have to be 75% covered for five years? It was all due to a dispute between the City of Portland and media behemoth Clear Channel over what constitutes art and what is advertising. In 1998 Clear Channel (then AK Media) sued Portland because murals were exempted from billboard regulations - Clear Channel owns almost all the billboards in town. They won the suit on the grounds that their free speech rights had been violated.

When Mirador, a local natural kitchen and home store, commissioned the mural in 2002 by artist Gwyllm Llwydd, they were given incorrect information about the zoning regulations; the following year the City issued citations stating that the mural would have to be painted over and that Mirador would be fined $50 a day for each day it remained. After much soul searching and many phone calls, the owners of Mirador decided to board up a percentage of the mural so that what remained would fall within the legal definition of a sign.

There was an uproar among the arts community, the neighborhood and other people with common sense. The boarding up of the mural became a symbol of censorship and corporate takeover. (Clear Channel gobbled up radio stations for a number of years in the 1990s and early 2000; now they were taking over the visual space as well.) One clever person posted a sign on the boards that read "Mayor Katz, tear down this wall!"

After years of court cases and negotiating, a new set of regulations was approved for murals (the Original Art Murals Project); in 2009 the wall finally came down and we are blessed with this lovely, complete work of art again.

We must guard against this kind of corporate dictating and bullying. Art is sacred. Ads for beer and cars are not.

You can read Mirador's timeline of the mural here.

View LARGE for more mural detail.