Swoon's giant wheatpaste memorializing hundreds of murdered Mexican women from Juárez on the corner of 24th and Hampshire has been a favorite of ours for the last three and a half years, and after surviving years of bipolar San Francisco weather, smeared feces, and the yellow 2 a.m. byproduct of $1 beers at Pop's, someone said “fuck it” and painted over the damn thing.

Here's what Mission Local had to say about the work way back in 2008:

The piece is unsigned, but [Precita Eye's Patricia Rose] determined from Internet research that it was probably the work of a 30-year-old Brooklyn street artist who goes by the alias Swoon.  The artist showed an almost identical piece last spring at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Though the Hampshire Street version is untitled, the museum work was called “Portrait of Silvia Elena,” and was a memorial to a teenage victim killed in a wave of unsolved murders of women in Juarez, the Mexican border town.  The exhibit’s materials explained that the young woman, Silvia Elena Rivera Morales, is portrayed in her quinceañera dress and crown.  Still another version of the installation was on display at the Honey Space gallery in Manhattan last summer.
[…]
“She told me she wanted it to be there for long,” [Kassa, convenience store owner at the corner of 24th and Hampshire] said.  He said the artist and her friend told him they were going to apply a final coating to protect it but never returned again.

Troubled by the thought that impending rainy season could destroy the piece, Kassa is considering taking action.

Precita Eyes sells a gallon of Sheercoat for $68 that can be applied in four coats to protect murals.  He is game to buy it if he can find someone to help him shoulder the cost.

Here it is, one last time:

[Second photo by Scott Cox]