On Sunday, a mural unveiling was held by Matt Brennan at the home of Chris Brugos. Brennan, an artist formerly based in Seattle, flew back to restore the Bettie Page/Divine mural that is painted on Brugos' home.
"I really just had to redo all the blackout lines. The faces had to be totally redone," Brennan said. This wasn't the first time he had to fix the mural. Back in 2016, he was tasked with restoring Bettie Page because vandals had targeted it. That's when Divine, a world-renowned drag queen, joined the 1950s pinup girl.
In the years since Divine was added, vandalism targeting the murals has become more extreme. Memorial Day weekend proved to be the worst incident yet.
"This one, for whatever reason seems to be like a lightning rod of people aggressively attacking it," Brennan said.
Red paint was splattered all over the home, destroying a mural that didn't have an anti-graffiti coating on it: Britney Spears posed as Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks.
"We have security cameras all over now," Brugos said. "It makes me feel good that at least we'll be able to have a chance catching the people that come back."
People continually ask Brugos why he thinks the mural is targeted.
"We don't know why they are doing what they did with the red paint but it happened after we put up Divine who is kind of an icon in that community," he said.
If Divine's connection to the LGBTQ+ community is the reason vandals are attacking, Brugos isn't backing down.
"That's what inspired us for the subject matter of the new mural."
That new mural, which replaced Britney Spears, is Marsha P. Johnson, a gay rights activist and trans woman. She's credited with helping start the modern gay rights movement, taking part in the Stone Wall Riots. She's dressed as the Statue of Liberty.
"I really hope people can just enjoy the mural and like the new one and don't hurt it," Brugos said.
More than $10,000 was raised to help create a new mural which Brugos said is the silver lining any time something like this happens: a massive amount of community support. However, his insurance company isn't so generous. Because they've filed so many claims over the years, their home insurance rates are going up. Brugos is hopeful the anti-graffiti coating used will mitigate any vandalism that may happen again, allowing for a quicker, cheaper cleanup that doesn't involve insurance.