In place of tropical flowers, a 5-foot-high handgun.
Instead of a beach scene with the legend "Celebrate the beauty of nature," a clenched fist lying in a pool of blood beside giant images of drugs.
In preference over blossoming bougainvillea and the words "art is every color," a dead body.
And in lieu of "Keep the arts alive," the slogan of the Tillett Gardens arts complex, a fresh new black and gold version of the old phrase, in 4-foot letters, "Some people are racist. . ."
It's the War of the Wall, renewed in full force after a seven-year truce.
The wall is the one that separates the sidewalk from the Tillett Gardens property across from the Four Winds shopping center and the Tutu fire station. It belongs to the government and its maintenance falls under the purview of the Public Works Department.
That's about all the warring factions agree upon.
Rhoda Tillett, who has lived and worked in the arts complex for more than 40 years, recently commissioned Marsha Stein, a painter and teacher who has a studio there, to create a new mural for the wall. Stein worked 50 hours last week painting scenes she considered appealing to the hundreds of residents and tourists who visit the arts complex each week and the thousands who drive by.
"It was pretty; it was positive," Stein says. "It was all about inviting people into the Gardens."
Saturday morning, Addelita Cancryn Junior High School teacher Austin Petersen and three of his graphic arts class students methodically began replacing Stein's work with their own images and words. In many cases, they were replicating what had been on the wall for the previous seven years.
Stein confronted them and was met with hostility. "One little girl cursed me," she says. "I told her I have a 12-year-old daughter, and I asked her what her mother would think if she knew that."
Two policemen called to the scene told Petersen to stop the work. After the officers left, the painting resumed.
Petersen told the Source his "painters' posse" was repainting the wall because his 1993 mural there had been "defaced." He said the old artwork for the most part "was not peeling," contradicting Tillett and others familiar with the wall, and he emphasized that "Public Works owns the wall."
One youngster said she was 14 years of age and had helped to paint the earlier mural seven years before. All three said they have worked on other murals with their teacher. A recent project was at Lionel Roberts Stadium, they said.
By mid-morning three adults and six youths were painting, periodically replenishing their supplies out of a pickup truck parked at the Texaco station across the street.
Cornel Esprit, who was working alone on the "Some people are racist…" lettering, said he had also worked on the big mural by Fort Mylner and the one on the wall of the nearby Edith Williams School — where his name is visible as a contributor. "I don't know where it came from," he said of the phrase he was painting.
Esprit also said that if someone painted that phrase on a wall where he lived or worked, he would "definitely not, definitely not" think the artist was talking about him.
Public reaction to the scene throughout the morning varied. A woman driving by slowed and called through her open window, "A gun? You painting a gun? What kind of message is that?" A man wearing a T-shirt that read Virgin Islands Fire Services told Esprit, "You all are courageous for painting."
Tillett says the situation is dismaying because, except for Stein's role, it's a repeat of what happened seven years ago, when Petersen and his posse arrived unannounced and began painting the mural that was visible until a week ago. Tillett challenged him then, exhibiting a letter dated June 16, 1993, from then-Public Works Commissioner Leo Francis stating that he had given her "permission to place and/or supervise any murals placed on the retaining wall" and adding that "Any murals placed on said wall will be in good taste and not offensive to any segment of the community."
Petersen painted on.
Francis sent Petersen a letter two months later giving him permission to continue painting "inspirational, educational and cultural murals" on walls at Fort Mylner, the St. Thomas Hospital, Mandela Circle and the turnoff to Victor's Hide Out. The letter noted that Tillett "has been granted permission to paint murals on the wall at Tillett Gardens."
A week after that, Francis sent Petersen another letter asking that he remove "the verbiage" painted on the Tillett wall. Francis sent yet another dated Nov. 17, 1993, noting with reference to the September one that "to date you have not complied with my request.
"Specifically, I am directing that the words "SOME PEOPLE ARE RACIST" be removed from the wall no later than Sunday, Nov. 28. . . Your failure to comply will result in DPW crews being dispatched to paint over this verbiage and the matter being referred to the Attorney General for further legal action."
Petersen took no action. DPW took no action. It was not immediately clear whether the case was referred to the Attorney General's Office; in any event, it took no action. The phrase remained on the wall until a week ago.
According to Tillett, the 1993 mural remained in place over the years because "I was intimidated and threatened." Now, she adds, "I don't want to fight, but I don't want to be intimidated any more either."
Her view is that "the issue isn't whose wall it is. The issue is what does the community want to find on the wall in front of an arts complex? The whole community has to see this ugliness because one guy says so?"
"The worst part," she adds, "is he was telling the children to disobey the law. It's hard enough growing up for kids today without your teacher telling you to do that."
The words that remained on the wall at the end of Saturday, in addition to the renovated "Some people are racist…" legend, were a title from the posse painters, "Wanted: Afrocentrist role models," and a listing by Stein of the arts complex offerings — "painting, pottery, beads, candles, music, wellness, arts & crafts, language, good food, fun."
Jason Budsan, owner of Caribbean Herbals, a business located in Tillett Gardens, says whatever is on the wall "is sending a message to the street — ‘That's what's inside.'"
What's there now, he adds, "is a slap in the face to Rhoda Tillett and all the things she has done for the community for 40 years."
To Budsan, Stein's "message was very clear — that art is important in a very positive way. To see all the things that are wrong in the world — what Mr. Petersen is trying to say isn't clear to me. If you were driving by, I wouldn't say it's very positive. I'd say it sets a bad example for kids."