This colorful mural features the face of George Floyd with a contemplative expression. He rests on a background of many types of flowers that are common on the East coast from where Floyd hailed.
“George Floyd” – In 2020, muralists Detour and Hiero completed a portrait of George Floyd on the Ready Temporary Services building located on Colfax Avenue at High Street. It was part of a campaign of murals that call attention to African Americans who've been killed at the hands of police officers. (from (
visit link) )
"Artists Detour and Hiero painted a mural of George Floyd on Colfax Avenue
Last week, muralists Detour and Hiero completed a collaborative portrait of George Floyd. The motif covers a wall on the side of a Ready Temporary Services building on Colfax Avenue at High Street where the Colorado Guardian Angels have based operations for the last few years.
Detour, whose name is Thomas Evans, initially told Denverite that he’d rather not comment on the work, preferring to let it “speak for itself.”
But he said he spoke to a lot of passersby as he and Hiero worked, and he decided to send us a short thought about the role of art in this moment of protest and uprising against police brutality and systemic violence.
“I really just came back to the theme that this is a constant reminder,” he wrote. “As momentum fades, there’s always an image that continues the conversation.”
Marches along Colfax and elsewhere downtown have not abated after more than a week of daily actions at all hours. The movement has also begun to shift into a policy phase, as Denver Public Schools moves to cut ties with the Denver Police Department, City Council contemplates investing in the police and state legislators attempt to increase police accountability.
If the consistency of marches and public demonstrations begin to fade, Evans hopes images of this moment painted on walls will remind Denverites that injustice here and nationwide must still be addressed." June 2020 (from (
visit link) )
"The George Floyd mural on Colfax was defaced twice in a month
Someone threw yellow paint on Detour and Heiro’s piece within the last week.
In early June, as protests demanding racial justice were at their height in the city, artists Detour and Heiro began a campaign of murals depicting Black Americans killed at the hands of police. A portrait of George Floyd, whose murder in Minneapolis sparked marches and rallies across the nation, was one of the first to go up. It’s still visible on the side of Ready Temporary Service’s auxiliary building on East Colfax Avenue between Race and High streets.
But Floyd’s face was marred in the last week. Someone threw a streak of yellow paint right in the middle of it.
Detour, whose real name is Thomas Evans, declined to comment. But Monica Brown, Ready Temporary Service’s general manager, said this is the second time something has happened to the mural. The yellow paint appeared sometime in the last few days, she said on Wednesday afternoon. About a month ago, she added, someone also spray painted “Fentanyl Floyd” across his face.
Both times after she saw that the mural was defaced, she said she reported the incidents to her landlord. Brown said one or both artists returned to fix the piece after the first time it happened.
Meanwhile, issues over race and power have spilled into street art across town.
During the recent CRUSH Walls event in Five Points, artist Jolt painted a mural depicting a rhino, developer Kent Wolf and “Love This City” artist Pat Milbery as scheming gentrifiers.
It was a message that channeled frustration over the RiNo Art District’s hip, new presence within the borders of Five Points, Denver’s historically Black neighborhood that’s experienced rapid displacement in the last decade. This is not the first mural that Jolt has painted in this spot that depicts a rhino railroading residents of color.
Jolt’s piece from 2020 was recently covered with a thin coat of white paint.
Later, words appeared that were written in Jolt’s “signature” lettering: “This mural has been censored. …Due to white fragility.”
Another message was added after that. On Wednesday, writing painted in green could be seen that appeared to further criticize Jolt.
One of the latest statements read: “This artist is a racist and a bigot.” Nov 2020 (from (
visit link) )
Also see (
visit link) .