South Salt Lake Murals Vandalized

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah – A South Salt Lake arts coalition is looking to raise money to repaint a half dozen murals after they were vandalized overnight Sunday.

The South Salt Lake Arts Council and the Utah Arts Alliance commissioned eleven murals for the city’s first “Mural Fest” in May.

Lesly Allen, director of the South Salt Lake Arts Council, says five of six murals they commissioned were tagged.

“We wanted to raise awareness of creative artists and amazing businesses we have,” said Allen.

“I had customers call me. ‘Are you aware of what happened to your building?’ I went outside and I saw that,” said Cesar Hernandez, owner of Mr. Muffler, an automotive center on West Temple and 21st South, referring to graffiti on his building’s mural Monday morning.

“Bummer, it just sucks. A lot of time and effort goes into something like that,” said Hernandez, who says the artist, Billy Hensler, spent a lot of time on it.

“This could be one of the hardest murals to repair because it has so much detail and he spent almost a month on it,” said Allen of Hensler’s wolf painting.

KSL TV reached out to Hensler, but didn’t hear back.

“There’s history and culture to graffiti, and some might say this is just an extension of that. That it’s just art on art… but what is hard for us is that was not the intent for these murals,” said Allen.

Police say they’re looking into this and questioning if this spree is connected to some other incidents recently in Salt Lake.

Meanwhile, those who admire the murals are looking for a solution.

“If it cost me money to fix it, I guess that’s fine with me. However, I can help the artist to come back and do it,” said Hernandez.

While the investigation is underway, a GoFundMe page has been set up to fix the murals.