May 25 marked the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Saturday, June 18 will mark the two-year anniversary of the completion of a mural — recognizing Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement — that was spray painted on the back of a wood fence facing 23rd Street, a bustling Lawrence roadway.
Erin Socha, who owns the property and the fence along with her wife, Maggie Wagner, commissioned local artist Xavier Martinez to create the mural. The mural depicts the face of Floyd, with the cursive wording George Floyd and Black Lives Matter painted on a blue background.
Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for nine minutes and 29 seconds. The former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was later convicted of murdering Floyd and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison. The murder sparked demonstrations in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities, including Lawrence, and spread around the world.
Street art has been a powerful piece of the racial justice movement as murals supporting Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement were painted all over the United States.
In reflecting back on when he painted the mural and what was happening around the country at the time, Martinez said, “I was just trying to bring awareness. It felt like people’s hearts were on fire for the first time that I had ever seen in my life.”
There were also personal reasons for Martinez.
“The reason I’m really passionate about it is because I had a cousin who was shot and killed by a cop,” Martinez said.
Now, nearly two years after the painting of the mural, the Lawrence homeowners and the artist remain happy with how the mural has held up over time and that it continues to send a message about racial justice.
Socha said she has been overwhelmed with the community response to the mural and continues to hear comments about its impact.
“The mural is about people in Lawrence, Kansas, standing together, linking arms and saying that Black Lives Matter,” Socha said.
At the time he created the mural, Martinez said, “It’s important to me to use my platform as an artist because I come from a very ethnically diverse family. When I see George Floyd, I see my family. When they see my painting, I want to constantly remind people what’s going on and be a reminder for us to all participate in the movement any way we can.”
One way Martinez does that is through his art. Less than two weeks before he painted the Lawrence mural, Martinez painted a portrait of Floyd on the Topeka Graffiti Wall. His Topeka mural was featured in an article in USA Today along with other Floyd murals from around the country. The Topeka mural was later vandalized.
“About two years ago, the world, at least the U.S., was erupting with this racial reckoning,” Socha said. “And mural art was a big part of that.”
Socha and her wife bought the house on Vermont Street at the end of 2018 and moved in in 2019. They had the fence installed so their three dogs could roam the back yard. They never envisioned the fence as a canvas for a mural. The spring and summer of 2020 changed that.
“There was this movement for racial justice that was important, and we thought maybe we could do something like a mural,” Socha said. “We considered all kinds of different artists. I crowdsourced on Reddit and Facebook to find Xavier. A mutual friend recommended him. I looked at some of the work he had done, which was great. He’s really talented.”
Socha wanted to hire a person of color to paint the mural. She and her wife are white; Martinez is Chicano. It was Socha’s first time to commission a piece of art.
Socha said she and her wife worried they could be targeted because of the mural.
“That was something we worried about,” Socha said. “Then I thought, if I am worried about someone targeting me for a mural, that’s kind of the definition of white privilege.”
Socha said she was concerned about the mural being defaced, but there has been no vandalism other than someone stole some solar lights that had been donated by Cottin’s Hardware.
The mural took two days to complete. Martinez painted the blue background first. He came back the next weekend and did the portrait and the wording.
“I trusted him completely as the artist,” Socha said. “I felt comfortable with him putting his vision there and just providing the space for it.”
Martinez told Socha he didn’t expect to be paid for doing the mural; he was just excited to do it. Socha said she paid him and told him he needs to value his art.
The mural hasn’t been touched up since it was painted almost two years ago.
“It’s in a good spot because the sun doesn’t hit it a lot,” Martinez said.
Prior to having the mural painted, Socha and Wagner hired Courtney Masterson of Native Lands LLC to create a pollinator garden in the space by the street-facing fence, which is located between Vermont and Massachusetts streets. The garden has grown up around the mural over the past two years.
Socha said she has considered having a different mural painted on the fence but has held off doing that, at least for the time being.
“Other stuff has come up that we think is really important,” Socha said, mentioning the invasion of Ukraine and the Aug. 2 election that is about the right to choose abortion. “… But the community is attached to this mural. This is still an important message, like it was two years ago.
“The mural is no longer just mine. This belongs to the whole community.”
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Jeff Burkhead is a Lawrence townie and KU alum. He is the communications manager for Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and photographer/writer for Backstory Photography. Mostly, he’s a proud husband, dad and pops.
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