Community members are invited to help repaint the Alex’s Bar mural next weekend after a group of vandals tagged the artwork on the night of Friday, May 27.
The mural is an iconic feature of the Anaheim corridor, much like the bar it adorns—a staple venue in Long Beach’s indie scene. The artwork, painted by Long Beach muralist Dave Van Patten, depicts a number of human and monster-like creatures conversing over juice boxes.
The mural was painted in the summer of 2017 during POW! WOW!, a week-long, city-wide event hosted by the worldwide organization that commissions murals in cities across the globe.
“The goal is to bust out a mural in about a week,” said Van Patten, who will lead the restoration effort. “It was painted in about nine days. Definitely over 100 hours. Long work days. At one point myself and the volunteers stayed up, we painted all night and onto the next day. It was a 30-hour paint session. It was just insane.”
In 2019, the mural was voted “Best Mural in Long Beach” in the Long Beach Post’s “Best of Long Beach” competition.
The day after the mural was tagged, bar owner Alex Hernandez painted over the tags, only to find the mural re-tagged the next day. The tags were once again covered in blue paint and have remained untouched since then.
“I’ve had murals tagged over before. You can’t get crazy upset about it, because it’s just part of life, especially with this career,” Van Patten said.
On Friday, June 10, the bar posted a GoFundMe started by muralist Van Patten which quickly met its goal of $2,000 and has raised $3,723 as of today.
The funds will go towards paint and supplies, as well as the time Van Patten will spend on a “full restoration” of the mural.
He hopes to turn the vandalism into a positive experience for the community. Van Patten said he’s already received dozens of messages from people volunteering to help paint the mural.
“The community all kind of rallied around. We’ve had an overwhelming amount of volunteers to help paint,” Hernandez said. “The huge negative of it has turned into a positive for the community.”
In the coming weeks, Van Patten will head to Alex’s Bar at night to project a high-resolution image of the original mural on the wall. He’ll then draw an initial outline of the shapes and characters in the artwork. Volunteers will be tasked with filling in the spaces.
“You don’t even really have to be a very skilled painter,” Van Patten said. “You just kind of block in a section of paint and then I can go in later and clean it up.”
The Alex’s Bar mural restoration will take place on Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26 from 8 a.m. until dark. The mural is expected to be completed a week later.
Don’t fret, this is going to be okay,” Van Patten said. “The power of community and our love for art is going to win in the long run.”
To volunteer to paint the mural, message Dave Van Patten on Instagram at @davevanpatten.
