NEW ORLEANS — Heather Mattingly paints from her heart.
What happened on Monday, near Canal Street and Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans, left her heartbroken.
“I was definitely in shock” Mattingly said. “I couldn’t believe that another person, someone who claims to be an artist could hurt another artist that way.”
Mattingly is part of the small army of artists who bring utility boxes on area street corners to life.
She was just finishing up her latest creation when suddenly a man appeared armed with a can of white paint and a roller.
“He blamed me for his painting being destroyed and he wanted to hurt me because he felt that I hurt him,” Mattingly said. “He felt that I disrespected him.”
Mattingly says the man told her the utility box had been home to his own artwork, a portrait of former Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
Jeannie Tidy is founder of Community Visions Unlimited (CVU), the non-profit sanctioned by the city and surrounding parishes to paint the boxes.
“To just go out willy-nilly and put up your artwork wherever you feel like doing it, it’s not okay,” Tidy said. “We took two years getting the permission from the city, from the transportation people, from all these different entities and we have to carry insurance and we have to have hold harmless contracts with all the artists.”
Mattingly has decorated about a dozen boxes so far, including one at the busy corner of Napoleon and Claiborne.
She says she offered to help the man become a CVU authorized artist.
“But he ignored me. He just continued to destroy my art.”
Mattingly says she’s not deterred by what happened to her art box, just determined to repaint it. But she says she is a little afraid the man will return and destroy her work once again.
“I’m not going to let that stop me. My mission is to help people feel happy.”
Heather Mattingly forwarded the cellphone pictures she shot of the man to New Orleans police.
He left the scene after rolling over her painting.
The NOPD is investigating this as a criminal damage to property case.
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