An artist is speaking out after she says her mural was vandalized along San Francisco’s Great Highway.
According to mural artist Emily Fromm, her 60-foot mural was tagged with white spray paint throughout its length.
Fromm said the incident happened sometime between when she left Friday night and when she returned in the area Saturday morning. Fromm said she spent the last six weeks, more than 150 hours, working on this project.
"It can be really devastating, but I quickly got to work organizing folks to help repair it, and fortunately, a lot of the community members that helped organize the mural were ready to help me with that," Fromm said.
The mural celebrates the history of western San Francisco, including the Sutro Baths, Playland by the Sea, Carville and the original Cliff House.
A Facebook group page called “Friends of Ocean Beach Park" was asking for volunteers to help repaint the project. Close to 100 responded to Fromm's call to repair the mural but said she wasn't sure how many actually showed up.
Local
Fromm said throughout her six weeks working on the mural, she has endured verbal harassment by people opposed to the closing of the Great Highway, which began last Friday. San Francisco voters approved of Proposition K in the November election.
"I don’t know why the mural was vandalized, the markings themselves were random on unspecific, though it likely had something to do with the closure the conversion of the highway into a public park because it happened that day," she said.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Fromm said she has nothing to do with the controversial decision and is no longer a city resident.
Fromm was hoping to have the mural completed by this Friday but now, that timeline is setback.
"Now, more than ever, we need civility and public discourse, park rangers are investigating a mural defacing," said Supervisor Joel Engardio in a statement. "Whether the graffiti is related to the park or not, two artists reported being verbally abused as they work on two different murals along the Great Highway."
