Schooner graffiti artist says he'll remove work
by Wendy Butler, 8/25/2006

Carlos Torres said that graffiti art helped keep him out of trouble, and his primary goal with United Future, a new The Ink People Center for the Arts program, has been to give young people a creative outlet that will do the same for them.

The 23-year-old said that he never intended to cause any problems in Old Town, Eureka, with his decision to, along with three others, create graffiti art on the alley side of the Schooner Saloon building at 207 Third St.

Torres said on Thursday that he plans to paint over the mural this weekend.

It was installed without prior Design Review Committee approval. A complaint about the mural was made to the city. A notice has been sent to Schooner building owner “Whitey” Bare to apply for permission or remove the design.

Bare told The Eureka Reporter that he was not familiar with the city requirement and does not like the resulting mural, anyhow.

Viewers might consider the artwork to be more abstract and abrupt, its components being a collage of colorful graphic lines melding into one another like water waves or electricity.

Torres arrived here four years ago from San Jose. He is an employee of Sports World and lives in Old Town. He has an infant daughter.

“That’s the reason why I started my hobbies again,” he said.

One of them is break-dancing, which he is contracted to instruct for Eureka Parks and Recreation at the Adorni Center beginning Oct. 14.

The other “hobby” is graffiti art, which he said he has placed in other areas around the city.

He said that in many cities, such as Oakland, graffiti has changed from being considered a form of “tagging,” or gang symbols, to young people’s “community” expression.

He said the work on the Schooner is in “wild style” form. It was painted with rollers, brushes and spray paint, all obtained from store donations of “mis-tint” paint that would not be sold.

He said his goal is not to “deface property.”

“It’s a street art,” Torres said. “Unfortunately, I understand that Old Town is not the place for it and I totally understand that.”

He said United Future is a program that also offers community renovations and graffiti removal, as well as signs.

“We’ll do whatever you want, but just let the kids do something,” he said.

Every six months the murals will change. He said he only meant the Schooner mural to be a temporary one and he thought that was OK.

Eureka artist Duane Flatmo’s Rural Burl Mural Bureau is also an Ink People program and also for young people. The group’s art, although decidedly different from the work on the Schooner, has met with some controversy before the Design Review Committee in the past.

He said that whatever Torres’ plans are, he needs to get the city’s permission to construct murals in Old Town.

“I would like to go put up a mural right now,” he said. “A few times I put signs up and I didn’t get a permit.”

Flatmo said it would be good if the city designated a special wall, a “gigantic area, where people could do whatever they want.”

But, he added, graffiti artists don’t tend to like to be in public.

Torres said he thinks they do want their work “exposed.”

“How do you show a sketch of graffiti to the Design Review?” Flatmo said.