Ony Graffiti: Art or Cult Symbolism?

Less than a month ago, buildings in Onalaska received a new paint job as some of the Northwest’s best graffiti artists expressed their artistic abilities with spray paint. Now, all but one of the paintings has been covered after residents of the Onalaska community expressed concerns over depictions of illuminati images and “cult-like” messages.

The organizer of Northwest Spray Day spoke at the Onalaska School District Board of Directors meeting Monday night on what he said was the superintendent’s premature decision to have the paintings covered weeks before they were scheduled to be painted over.

Justin Boggs, a former Onalaska resident and street artist, said an email he received from Superintendent Jeff Davis left no room for collaboration or discussion regarding the art before he had to paint over them.

Davis told The Chronicle before the school board meeting that some people brought objectionable items to his attention, and that although many liked the artwork, many also opposed it. 

The murals were asked to be painted over three days before the school board meeting, a setting Boggs said would have been more appropriate to hold a conversation and find a plan moving forward. 

He painted all of them over, except one piece titled “They Drift,” the one some residents found to be the most controversial. 

While many attended the meeting in support of Boggs and the paintings, one resident expressed her discomfort with the paintings depicted on the play shed near the elementary school.

“The point is a lot of it was inappropriate and it doesn’t belong on a school play shed,” Tanda Haight told Boggs during the meeting. She said after searching the top 10 Illuminati signs, three of them were depicted on the buildings. “It shouldn’t be political,” she said. 

One of the images featured on the “They Drift” piece was the “all seeing eye,” or the Eye of Providence, the picture depicted on the back of one-dollar bills. Some residents  connected the image with the Illuminati, a 16th century group of Spaniards who claimed to posses special enlightenment or knowledge and in return inspired a cult-like following. 

Boggs said all art was open to interpretation, but those who related it to the Illuminati, were reading too much into the drawings. 

“… I cannot stand back and let this beautiful mural be covered up without further review due to the inaccurate depiction of what the All Seeing Eye represents in regards to the original intentions of the artists,” he said to the board. 

One supporter of the artwork, Ayla Withey, said the Illuminati was not a real cult and was instead a fictional work. 

“Trying to say someone’s bringing cult art into our town that is something that is on our money, you have to tell children they can’t bring $1 bills to pay for their lunch anymore if you are going to tell them it can’t be on the shed,” she said. “Because if you are banning that symbol, you should be banning that symbol period.” 

Pat Petrino, a kindergarten teacher in the district, said she supported the event and the paintings that came with it. In the past, Petrino toured the paintings with her students, celebrating each piece, she said.

“I feel like the woman in ‘Field of Dreams’ who went to the school board meeting when they were trying to ban books and said, ‘Aren’t we in the United States of America? We are not in Nazi Germany,’” she said, adding the murals depicted nothing controversial. 

Other members of the community said they wanted to see the event continue, although maybe with stricter rules for the paintings in the future. Jim Arnold said the event could grow to rival Winlock Egg Days and Toledo Cheese Days if the potential was built on. 

Although Boggs hoped the last mural would remain on the play shed, chances are it will be painted over like the ones before it last year. 

Davis told The Chronicle after the meeting that he did not know if the event would continue in the future, a decision that would be made by the school board at a later date.