Vandergrift muralist paints over racist graffiti at The Center

A Vandergrift artist created a mural with a message of empowerment and community last week, after a local community center was overwhelmed with hateful graffiti.

Chloe Kruse, owner of The Center on Franklin Avenue, said the back of her building always has attracted some graffiti. But recently, Kruse said the markings have gotten “out of hand” with multiple depictions of swastikas, racial slurs and explicit images.

When Kruse approached local muralist Alex Chaffins for help, she said she wasn’t sure he would be able to cover it all.

“It wasn’t normal graffiti,” said Chaffins. “It was a lot of hate speech.”

Chaffins has completed a number of murals around Vandergrift, including one with a covid-19 theme on his own garage wall, which he changes every few weeks. He’s also working on a three-wall mural inside a local animal rescue nonprofit, Tiny Cause.

Last week, he completed a mural showing three women — of multiple races — surrounded by flowers on the back of The Center.

“I love what (Kruse) is trying to do with the town,” Chaffins said. “And with her being such a strong, powerful female, I knew the image had to be powerful.”

Chaffins said he spent about 25 hours on the mural over six days — all while Westmoreland County was enduring stifling heat and a Code Orange air-quality advisory.

Creating the mural was not without incident. Returning to the alley one day, he found that someone had painted graffiti over his work in progress.

Chaffins said he painted over the defacement and put out a call on social media, offering help and mentorship to any street artists who want to turn graffiti into a career.

“I was the rebellious youth also,” he said. “If anything, I would love to be that bright light to this younger generation of artists and show them the proper way to do it.”

Kruse said she still walks around the back of the building every day, just to make sure the mural hasn’t been defaced again.

Since completing the mural, the community’s response has been overwhelmingly positive, Chaffins said.

Kruse and Chaffins described the project as an important contribution to the community because its positive message replaced hateful and explicit ones.

“Art is my weapon,” Chaffins said. “When you see negativity, you feel negative. If I just throw a couple bits of positivity, maybe that negative will slowly fade away.”