UTB MURAL TOO RISQUE FOR JULIET, $17,000 DOWN THE DRAIN

By Juan Montoya
When Miguel Vela, the artistic director and owner of LocoSigns in Brownsville submitted his sketch of a mural for the new UTB-TSC gymnasium, the reception was enthusiastic.

He was commissioned to erect – at $13,000 – the mural on the wall of the new building, appropriately along the second-floor running track.

But the devil, as they say, was in the details. Or, more specifically, the buttocks and ample scrotum of the runners depicted in the bigger-than-life-sized mural.
"The runner's scrotum was out of logical proportion," said a runner who uses the gym's running track regularly. "And the buttocks of the runners were clearly visible. Some of the more sedate runners complained to UTB president Juliet Garcia."

It is said that when Garcia ran (appropriately) to the gym she was aghast when she saw the offending art. She didn't hesitate to order the creation destroyed and torn down from the wall.

"In one fell swoop she had the mural torn down. In the process, there was paint scraped off the wall because the mural had been glued on it. Now the repairs are going to cost another $3,000 to $4,000."

No one is saying much about the mural which was up one day and down the next, but we'll be interested to see what the replacement will be. Perhaps we'll see swimmers with crinolined swimsuits of the Victorian era. Or perhaps just a modestly painted wall.

This is not the first time that Juliet has been bitten in the hindsight by an art project. The last time the UTB-TSC commissioned a $640,000 mural by a Mexican artist, the outcry was such that the Pres offered to raise private funds to pay for the work. In this case, with the art having been approved and the payments made, will the public also eat the bill?