After receiving accusations of plagiarism, the Downtown Mural disappeared from the Domino’s at 2 E. Main St. over Labor Day weekend. 

Mural artist Ridge Bonnick said in an interview with The Apopka Chief that Main Street Apopka president Caitlin Kasheta painted the wall white on Sept. 1. He was not involved in the decision to cover the mural. 

The mural’s disappearance comes after Bonnick addressed an email to the Apopka City Council, city clerk Susan Bone, and finance director Blanche Sherman. 

“I am writing to urgently request your immediate attention regarding Main Street Apopka, a nonprofit funded by the City of Apopka, which has failed to honor a signed $3,000 contract with me,” Bonnick wrote in the Aug. 29 email. “I fully completed the contracted mural project, for which I have received one installment of $1,500. The remaining $1,500 has not been released, despite the work being completed and accepted.” 

Bonnick also wrote that he needed the remaining $1,500 in order to pay his rent by the Sept. 1 deadline. As of a Sept. 3 interview with the Chief, Bonnick has not yet received the payment. 

“My bank says that it’s supposed to be there by the fifth,” Bonnick said. “If it’s there, there’s no complaints from me.” 

Bonnick is currently attempting to get a cash advance in order to pay his rent. If the payment from Main Street Apopka does not arrive by Sept. 5, he will find more work to take care of the difference. 

“I can walk away from this and be the bigger person,” Bonnick said. “I just wanna go do my art.” 

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Kasheta said the full payment has left the Main Street Apopka account. But the plagiarism claims left both citizens and council members wanting to suspend or at least alter the city’s relationship with Main Street Apopka. 

“Maybe it was our fault, in a way, because we didn’t set parameters to say, you know, ‘If you’re going to do this with the money, we need to have some accountability,’” Vice Mayor Diane Velasquez said. “We trusted the leadership, but the mural has proven to us that the leadership was unable to see one project through.” 

Mayor Bryan Nelson clarified that the city was not involved in the mural beyond granting Main Street Apopka $12,500.  

“All we’ve done is funded Main Street, and yet we’re the one—half the articles in the paper and half the articles on TV [say] it was the city of Apopka,” Nelson said. 

Ella Duke, co-owner of Propagate Social House, said this is the fourth time Main Street Apopka has “messed up.” 

“This is just the first time that it made news and that it inconvenienced the city,” Duke said. 

Nikki Maguire, who runs N.A.O.M.I. Kids, said her nonprofit has struggled to receive a smaller portion of funds from the city than Main Street Apopka has received. 

“I think this is a learning experience for everyone,” Maguire said. “It saddened me that Apopka again is in the news based on something that could have been handled a lot differently. As a nonprofit leader, we are not all treated equally by the city.” 

The council then unanimously motioned for city staff to review the Main Street Apopka contract with the city attorney in order to draft a letter of default for review. 

Bonnick began painting the Downtown Mural on July 24. Main Street Apopka, the nonprofit that commissioned the mural, hosted a reveal event on Aug. 22. Shortly after the mural’s unveiling, social media users claimed that the mural was nearly identical to the work of Iowa artist Jenna Brownlee. 

Main Street Apopka issued an apology on its social media platforms on Aug. 26, but the posts were subsequently removed.  

“We sincerely apologize to Mrs. Brownlee and to our community,” Main Street Apopka said. “As a nonprofit dedicated to revitalize our historic downtown, we strive to uplift artists and act with integrity. We are now in direct communication with Mrs. Brownlee to properly acknowledge her work and provide fair compensation.” 

Bonnick took issue with Main Street Apopka’s statement, which did not mention Bonnick. Bonnick claimed Main Street Apopka gave him a sketch and did not want him to deviate much from it. He also posted text messages to his Instagram story from a contact labeled “Apopka Mainstreet Directir” on his phone. 

“If this woman [Jenna Brownlee] reaches out to you, do not respond,” the text message read. “We’ve done nothing wrong and she is totally off base unless she sends Main Street something official[.]” 

Bonnick hopes to bring “redemption” to the situation by painting another mural in Apopka with other artists.