Kurt Vile Mural Randomly Buffed; Instagramers Catch Culprit In Action

UPDATE (6/29/14, 2:30 PM): The alleged buffer posted a response to our article, essentially apologizing for his actions.  A portion of his comments follows (see full comment below):

“Hello everyone, I am the idiot in the picture. Let me start off by saying I Love Philadelphia, I love my neighborhood and I love Art. I am completely committed to supporting legal street art, publicly funded art and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. But what I did yesterday was the most stupid and selfish thing I have ever done. I think I literally had a mental breakdown and lost my mind there. Thank you to Dashiki for having the courage to step to me and try and talk some sense into me to get me to stop. I was so angry when he was talking to me that I didn’t listen to a word he said.

I kept yelling at him “have people ever painted on your house?”

After I cooled off I did some research into both Kurt Vile and the Artist who painted it. Then I felt like more of a moron. I sent both apologies to him and ESPO. Before any of this became public.”

He claimed he contacted Kurt Vile and Steve Powers, offering his apologies and extended an opportunity to fund a re-painting of the mural.  We’ve reached out to Steve Powers for a response; as of this update, our emails haven’t been returned.

Philly journalist Leah Kauffman just posted an interview with local DJ Lee Mayjahs to her Facebook. In the interview, Mayjahs says he’s the one who painted over the mural, and that the comment referenced above (and posted to this article) was indeed him.

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ORIGINAL: If you were a fan of Steve Powers‘s Kurt Vile mural in Fishtown, you’re out of luck.  This morning, a man (described by Instagram user @dasheikee as an “ignorant piece of shit”) randomly painted over the mural, claiming that the piece of artwork “brought graffiti to the neighborhood.”

Of course, the good Instagram users of Fishtown didn’t let this go down quietly and captured the culprit red-handed.  Check out some of their snapshots below:

Here’s a video of the mural’s creation set to “Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze.” (h/t Consequence of Sound)