Painters Asked to Give Boy in Mural Lighter Skin

PRESCOTT, Ariz. - A new mural at a public school in Prescott is now the topic of an intense debate about color and censorship.

The artists say the mural they painted is supposed to show the diversity of the kids at the elementary school in Prescott, but following comments by a city council member, the school principal asked the artist to paint the kids' faces a lighter color.

The mural was painted last month on the wall of the Miller Valley Elementary School, at the corner of the busiest intersection in Prescott.

But now the piece of art is the subject of controversy, following a comment that City Councliman Steve Blair made on his radio show two weeks ago.

He said on The Steve Blair Show on KYCA, "To depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person -- I would have to ask the question why."

After the radio show, the school principal asked the mural artists, a group called Mural Mice, to lighten the boy's face.

"When we began to paint the picture, nobody really thought about the color of the skin on the kids," says artist R.E. Wall.

Wall started to paint over the boy's face with a flesh-toned color this week, but stopped at his forehead, after getting a bad feeling.

"When you get attached to something, you like it the way it is, and somebody who's a non-artist comes along and tells you that's not good enough?"

Councilman Blair defended his comments Friday. "To me it wasn't about race, they made it about race…. If I've offended anybody out there I apologize to them, because we have a lot of cultures in Prescott."

Prescott resident Jeff Demand is appalled about the request to repaint. "This is just blatant censorship of the arts. You can paint any face on it you want -- but when you have censorship and bigotry, that's the beginning of the end. And that's what scares me."

The mural is causing such a firestorm in the community, police actually put surveillance on it to make sure no one vandalizes it.

Meanwhile, the boy's face remains only partially repainted. The artists haven't said if they'll continue.

Councilman Blair was fired from his radio show, due to his comments about the mural.

Prescott is located in central Arizona, about 100 miles north of Phoenix. It has a population of about 40,000.