Not sure if many people follow tiki artist, SHAG, but you can see his images here. SHAG was actually inspired by mid-century commercial artists that painted in a similar style. I love the style and have a bunch of SHAG prints. But the mural needs more tikis and martini glasses.
Not sure if Portz was inspired by SHAG, but now days nothing is original, and I certainly steal ideas from several artists, most notably, Andy Warhol.
During the video the mayor made the comment that they are ‘doing it the right way’. According to who? You? He also said that the image was ‘Non-Controversial’ though I do see a nod to this guy going on. As the mayor also said ‘Art is subjective’ and exactly the reason that we shouldn’t allow ONE person or special group of people to be selecting public art behind closed doors.
During the public input period at the Active Transportation Board I commented on the darkness of city hall and how I have never seen it this bad in 20 years. I told the board, until you have a transparent government you accomplish very little.
I feel bad for all the good people involved with this project, from the artist, to the donor to the city staff who have to tow the line of secretive government because that is what your master demands, but at the end of the day you can either feed at that trough or you can do the right thing and say ‘NO. This is wrong.’
The mural will ultimately be an improvement of what we have now, but golly, that’s a lot of lipstick!