Brent Herling removed the Spongebob painting from the Forest Lane mural Friday night and started repainting images similar to the original design.
The Spongebob art that appeared on the Forest Lane mural back in June turned lots of heads in our neighborhood and even helped spur the creation of a Facebook group “Helping to Paint the Wall on Forest Lane”. Alumni are organizing an effort to bring back the original art painted by W.T. White seniors in the 1970s.
Brent Herling, the Glen Meadows resident who painted the Spongebob scene at Forest and Midway, wants to help with that effort. He painted over his art last night since some neighbors and alumni were not happy about the new design.
“Spongebob has left the building,” he says. “It was never intended to be permanent. I just wanted to cover up the graffiti.”
The wall has been repeatedly marred over the years by taggers. Herling, a 1977 W.T. White alumnus himself, says no one else was doing anything about it at the time, so he cleaned it up. He has repaired several sections of the wall, and his work has been praised by the city.
The alumni group is still working on getting donations and supplies to start restoring the entire 200-foot wall.
