Local artist refurbishes DPD mural in Deep Ellum

As members of the Dallas community attempt to find some way to help, local artist Steve Hunter has given his talent.

Steve and his wife Mischelle Hunter were out of town Thursday night when the shooting occurred, but they followed along closely with the news, watching their friends as they were interviewed on TV and as they posted anxiously on Facebook.

One of the Facebook posts was with the DPD mural located at the corner of Good Latimer and Canton in Deep Ellum. Steve noticed that the mural had been tainted, and he commented that someone should fix it.

"It had just been neglected, but people were paying more attention to it with recent events, and we thought it deserved respect," Steve said.

When he and Mischelle returned to Dallas, however, no one had fixed it. Steve figured he could finish it up in just a few minutes, so he and Mischelle stopped by on July 11, 2016.

Before Steve came by, the cap of the the officer in the mural was damaged.

With a stepladder, a bucket of water, a paintbrush and a few different blue and black paints, Steve quickly perfected the image.

"The shooting was an outrage, and no one was stepping up to fix the image. I knew it would only take me 10 minutes, so I just did it," Steve said.

Steve has been painting murals in Dallas on and off since he moved from Scotland. He spent about six years teaching art at Faith and Family Academy in Oak Cliff where he met his wife Mischelle, a design artist.

In 2011, he realized he missed painting murals, so he left his teaching job and returned to the public art scene in Deep Ellum.

Steve painted one of the murals in the 42 mural project as well as other murals all over Deep Ellum. He's painted the highest-point mural in Texas (on the 71st floor of the Bank of America Plaza) and is currently working on a series of law and order murals for the courthouse project.

He's also created (almost) six mosaics, four of which involved the community. Participants pay a $100 fee to help with the mosaic every week until it is complete. Steve then puts all of the pieces together on the walls, and the community members enjoy seeing their work around town. Participants don't know what the mosaic will depict until it is completely done.

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