Plymouth Business Fights Paint With Paint

PLYMOUTH (CBS) - In recent years, downtown Plymouth has undergone a kind of metamorphosis. It is now a vibrant retail destination, where years ago there were empty storefronts. But the makeover still has some blemishes: graffiti.

And no matter what the merchants do to clean up the graffiti, the taggers come back with their spray paint cans.

"It's very frustrating," says Diane Thomson of Main Street Antiques. "We even put a chalk board up on our back wall, but they painted over it."

But Thomson was recently approached by an artist who volunteered to paint a mural on her back wall, the theory being that graffiti artists don't paint over someone else's work.

"We were thinking maybe a Mayflower theme, or Squanto," says Sally Dubrowski , who works at the antique store.

But what they got was a mural of the artist, painting the wall. It's a very colorful mural that even includes the artist's girlfriend, who helped him. "I was shocked at first," says Thomson, "but now I kinda like it. I just hope he comes back to finish the rest of the wall."

The wall is on School Street and Burial Hill looks right down on it. Which begs the question: Will the Historical Commission go along with it?

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