The artist restores the vandal-damaged Bad Bunny mural

A mural dedicated to the musical star Bad Bunny on the outside wall of a restaurant in his hometown Vega Baja, damaged by vandals in mid-December, was restored this Wednesday by its creator, the Puerto Rican artist. Eric Chacon.

“We’re going to fix it and add the message that I want to project, which is aimed at the youth: not losing their dream, keeping their focus like Benito and all those qualities of humble people and children who want to improve themselves “Chacón told Efe about his piece dedicated to Benito Martínez, the urban artist’s first name.

The mural was created by Chacón, of the New Art Industry company, in May 2019 and it took the author 18 hours to complete.

The painting shows Bad Bunny’s face with lines of different colors, such as white, red, blue, yellow, orange, green and black, with his tongue, his signature glasses on, a third eye on his forehead and his two little fingers pointing towards his expensive.

“The whole concept of lines, colors and form will remain intact,” says Chacón, 40, of the piece outside the Costa Norte restaurant, in operation since 1980 and located in the Marbella sector. known as “Puerto Nuevo Beach”.

The style Chacón used for the mural is “Wedha’s Pop Art Portrait”, known as WPAP.

“It’s more difficult and you have to be precise,” Chacón said of the work, which he will recover with a ladder and possibly scaffolding.

Bad Bunny, the most listened to artist on Spotify in 2020 with over 8,000 million views, grew up specifically in the Almirante Sur sector, an area near the town of Vega Baja, on the north coast of Puerto Rico.

Vandalism day

According to a friend of a daughter of Rosa Valle, a member of the management of the Costa Norte restaurant, it was December 22 last year when several unknown persons damaged the mural with spray cans.

As Valle told Efe at the time, he saw the moment when the suspects fled the spot in a vehicle.

Even several residents of the place have taken videos and photos of the moment when the unknowns committed the act of vandalism and left the area.

On vandalism, Chacón said: “I felt the same way a child feels when he draws a very beautiful drawing and another child comes and damages it. I felt what every artist feels or would feel when their art is damaged ”.

Chacón acknowledged, however, that “these are the risks an artist considers when deciding to create street art, as the audience that will have the impact is greater than the risks.”.

As explained by Chacón, the reason for capturing Bad Bunny’s image in a mural came when the city interpreter appeared on the red carpet at the 2019 American Music Awards with a third eye painted on his forehead and both little fingers pointing to his face .

“That was a sign that his originality knows no bounds,” said Chacón de Bad Bunny, who before devoting himself fully to music worked as a packer in a supermarket in his hometown and upbringing.

According to Chacón, the entire project to create the mural took six months, during which he and his wife “explored” Vega Baja and went to the mayor’s office to find out which walls they could paint the work on, until they found the sector of Reached Marbella. and they spoke to the owners of the north coast.

“We chose to dedicate the play to Bad Bunny because of his values, achievements and all the positive things he has done. I am a fan of his achievements and what he has done for the people, ”Chacón emphasized, referring to the young artist who has also been giving hundreds of presents at Christmas to children and young people in Puerto Rico over the last few years.

“Bad Bunny, on the other hand, in several of his themes, refers to his pride in being Puerto Rican, another of the main reasons we chose to paint the artist,” emphasized Chacón, a hairdresser by trade.

Chacón also emphasized the ‘bad rabbit’ because in his songs he emphasizes ‘the problems we face, such as gender violence, the lack of identity of our youth for fear of being judged or marginalized or criticized’.

“Benito has reached many generations through his character, and in our opinion this artist is a key piece when we talk about creating consciousness to generate changes in our country about love for the country, value our qualities as Puerto Ricans and give ourselves the value we deserve to the world, ”he said.

“We want to take advantage of the artist’s reach to make different generations aware of appreciating children and young people who are already the future of the world. That they support their creativity and their imagination, so that these are the new inventors of the world. That each generation is a better version of the previous, ”he pointed out.