DENVER — The strokes of a paintbrush are quickly drowned out by the hum of a power washer along a greenway bike path in the Sun Valley neighborhood in Denver. Despite the brushes and gallon buckets, what’s happening here isn’t art; it’s uncovering art.
“It’s very difficult to melt the paint off the wall while still maintaining the artwork underneath,” said Gavin Weir, the man behind the power washer.
Slowly and methodically, Weir applies a special chemical to the white brick wall along Weir Gulch Park, then power washes small sections at a time, to reveal the mural from the 1970s that lies underneath.
“This mural was treasured by the community for years,” Emmanuel Martinez said, overseeing the work that Weir is doing.
Martinez was the original designer of the 350-foot-long, 16-foot-high mural and its anti-drug message. The local community helped paint the mural back in the '70s, where it stood until it fell victim to graffiti in the 1990s.
“The city, unfortunately, I think did he wrong thing by just painting over it white,” Martinez said.
Now, his daughter’s organization, the Chicano Murals of Colorado Project, the goal is to bring this giant piece of art back.
“This is one of the biggest murals in Denver so it’s gonna take a while if we want to uncover the entire thing,” Weir said.
“It’ll be a very challenging project but I think we can get it done,” Martinez added.
Martinez has a reason to be optimistic. A restoration of a nearby mural at 8th and Federal was recently completed using a similar process of stripping off white paint. The Murals Project also has recently persevered other Chicano murals at nearby La Alma Park, using something called ‘mural shield’ to protect them from graffiti.
In May, Denver7 reported on the National Trust for Historic Preservation placing the Chicano/a/x Community Murals of Colorado on its 2022 List of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
“The only thing really left is the murals,” Martinez said.
The mural at Weir Gulch will admittedly take time, energy, and funding to complete. But for Martinez and the Murals group, it’s a way to restore and remember the cultural influence of the longtime residents of this neighborhood.
“It’s important to our community and to the community at large, I think, to be aware of our presence at one time,” Martinez said.
For more information on the Mural Project, and for an interactive map of Chicano murals in Denver, head to https://www.chicanomuralsofcolorado.com.
