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Two weeks to the day after the world exploded in mournful love-making, Portland's first Prince mural went up.
The ink was barely dry on the Twitter epitaphs when graffiti artist Ashley Montague started painting. Purple doves fly heavenward, seeming to escape a chain-link fence, on the building behind Northeast's Motivasi Coffee.
Before:
After:
Montague is also the artist who memorialized Michael Brown after his fatal shooting spurred the Black Lives Matter movement. That mural, on the side of Bonfire Lounge, will probably be painted-over with business logos soon, says Bonfire's owner, who's fed up with the tagging and controversy surrounding Montague's art.
"At least they'll be happy it's not another social issue mural," says Montague.
As the saying goes, when one deceased black man's six-foot-tall face gets painted over…
It was a sunny weekend for painting, says Montague, who evened out his tan and refined his art from mid-Thursday morning through Saturday, May 14. He took breaks when darkness fell, and the sweet, love-making sounds of Erotic City's Prince tributes filled Portland night clubs.
Willamette Week