Ten years after paintbrushes created the art, it was time for scrub brushes to clean it up.
Six volunteers went to work Wednesday at a mural representing the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Their battle was against mold and moss.
The mural is of one of several on the downtown Remembrance Wall representing events of World War II. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a turning point in the war in the Pacific.
The painting also salutes the aircraft carriers that were built at the Kaiser Shipyard just east of the mural gallery.
The Vancouver-launched USS St. Lo is pictured as it is sinking, one of the U.S. Navy’s casualties in what was a major American victory in October 1944.
That section of the wall, facing City Hall along Phil Arnold Way, “is on the shady side,” said volunteer Anne McEnerny-Ogle, a city councilor and mayor pro tem.
Street grime and dust from the rail traffic that rolls by on the tracks atop the berm also have taken their toll.
The volunteers answered the Vancouver Mural Society’s call for help. They used handfuls of common baking soda to scrub off the crud, then rinsed the 24-foot-wide image clean with water.
The cleanup wasn’t the only project going on Wednesday at the Remembrance Wall. Former Vancouver soldier Gen. George Marshall is getting a face-lift. Literally.
The portrait of Marshall that was painted about 10 years ago has been covered in primer by artist Guy Drennan.
“There was a likeness issue,” said Drennan, who now will offer his own vision of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He plans to have it done by the end of the month.
