Painting a mural is a large undertaking and to treat them as disposable is a waste of paint and energy. Murals foster a sense of community and community pride which I experienced at Merrill College after painting the Mumia mural. After it was painted over without my knowledge, without having a chance to see it one last time, without having been part of the process that decided whether it would stay or go, I feel disconnected from Merrill. I don't ever want to go in the moat again because seeing the spot where my mural once was is too painful. This experience has also been a lesson in letting go.
Nothing is permanent.
I don't regret painting the mural, but I am sorry that it was in a place where I had no control or rights over it. Most muralists copyright their work, protecting their art from being destroyed. Merrill College provides the wall and supplies which makes mural painting accessible to many students who might not otherwise paint one and I am thankful for that. However, students who paint murals here have no control over the future of their work, which is left up to the whim of other students, few of whom know about what goes into the process of mural painting. In a recent conversation with a friend, Julia Lindsey, a senior, who also painted a mural at Merrill, I was reminded why I painted the mural there in the first place and the value of the moat.