Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
A popular mural celebrating one of Kings Park’s iconic native flowers has been destroyed by graffiti in Perth’s western suburbs, leaving its owner heartbroken and planning on trying to recreate the piece herself.
Daglish resident Helen Yu discovered the artwork on the side wall of her home had been tagged when her children returned from school on Thursday, September 24.
The mural, painted about five years ago, featured a stylised depiction of the Kings Park bottlebrush, or callistemon, and was designed to reflect the native plants and character of the surrounding area.
The wall faces a small park on Stubbs Terrace, adjacent to Daglish train station, which Ms Yu said was a popular park regularly used by the local community.
“It makes it nicer for the park to have that rather than just a plain wall,” Ms Y said. ”This is what things that bring our suburbs to life and like enjoyable places to live in.”
Ms Yu said she paid about $5000 for the artwork to be done by two local artists.
Rather than letting the mural simply disappear, Ms Yu said she is going to attempt to recreate it herself, considering one artist lives away and the other does not work in the field anymore.
Ms Yu said she believes the graffiti was done overnight, given the busy location being right next to Daglish train station.
“I don’t think anyone could have done that during the day,” she said.
“That park always has people in and out. People love that little park. It’s never empty.
“It’s just a completely pointless act of destruction.”
On Friday, she said she had reported the graffiti to both the council and police but was concerned that council would just paint over it.
“I didn’t want to just report to council because I know they’ll just come and paint over it,” she said.
“I’m assuming they will, so it’s pretty disappointing.”
Since then, council has painted over the graffiti.
“I’m doing it (painting) myself, so if it’s terrible, I’ll think again,” Ms Yu said.
Ms Yu said she understands that graffiti can be considered an artform, and could not understand why one artist would choose to destroy another person’s work.
“I really have great respect for art and I understand that graffiti can be art, and if this person wants to be an artist, that’s fine,” she said.
“But why destroy someone else’s art in the doing?”
Ms Yu said the property had previously experienced small amounts of graffiti after the family moved in about 15 years ago, but it had stopped about a decade ago.
