The Artists of the Wall were screwed, just as The Bench warned last summer and just as the photos here show.The top photo was taken just a couple of days after the wall was "prepped" for new painting. It was already badly peeling.
The second photo shows what a mess the wall became by March, 2008. Badly peeling, many painted spaces were barely recognizable.
Brought to you in part by the same geniuses who brought us the Mile of Murals debacle last year, the Wall is an annual project at Rogers Park's Loyola Beach that should be a simple thing to manage. But then, getting a 200-foot stretch of cement wall painted seems like a simple thing to manage, too. The Wall is painted every summer by Rogers Park residents, for a fee of $35.00 for a four-foot stretch of the concrete artifact.
The Loyola Park Advisory Council is the group of cheapskates in charge of this fiasco. The LPAC members need to go to the park, look at the mess on the concrete strip, and contract a sand blasting service to clean up the horribly peeling and chipping paint that has accumulated over several years.In years past, the wall has been sandblasted to prepare it for a fresh coat of paint, applied by families, children and a few local businesses. But for several years, the organizers of the event chose to simply paint it white.
Unfortunately, they used crappy paint and did not allow enough time for it to dry thoroughly. As predicted, severe peeling only a few months after it was painted.
Folks paid $35 for this??? They should get their money back, and the Artists of the Wall organizers should issue an apology to everyone who steps foot on the beach that has to look at this ugly sight.
