Chris Devins “was devastated” and “felt terrible.” He spent around six hours of his Labor Day weekend painting Eminem’s mural in Detroit. The very next day, the artwork got covered in a bunch of little bird heads.
Chris was already at home when he discovered what happened. Someone alerted the artist after they had posted the bird-covered Eminem’s mural on social media. Chris then posted a picture of defaced mural too. He also complained in the caption,
“Only one day after it’s completion, some idiot in Detroit already defaced the new M mural. You can’t give some people anything good. Dumb. I can probably fix it but damn….”
After Instagram, Chris Devins went complaining to The Detroit News. Devins talked about how he “was devastated.” In Chris’s opinion, new graffiti is “disrespectful” and “against the rules of street art.” At the same time, Chris calls his original graffiti “tactical urbanism.” The artist plans to come back and fix his artwork.
Chris also complimented and offended the wall used for artwork in one sentence. “It was a great wall,” he said, “It looked like it was going to sit there for a second, so I thought it could use some beautification.”
In the end, Chris stated that “There was time and effort spent to make sure it was something people would want, and to make it relatable to the community. It’s not just usual tagging.”
Chris’ Other Work
Eminem is not the first rapper pictured by Chris Devins. Chris has also painted a mural for Juice WRLD and King Von in Chicago. Even though King Von’s graffiti was commissioned, police tried to take it down because of gang tensions.
Delilah Martinez was commissioning the graffiti. She also talked with Complex about the matter and said, ““Their complaints were that the mural would promote gang retaliation: people coming to shoot up the mural. They were worried about people in that area. After they said all that, they were like, ‘This has been going on for years.’ And I’m like yes! That has nothing to do with the mural!”
In other Detroit news, read about Big Sean joining the Detroit Piston’s creative team!
Written by Nikita Serdiuk | IG: @nikitasrdk | Twitter: @nktserdiuk