NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. The Providence, Rhode Island artist commissioned to paint a mural of slain Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska said he feels his freedom of expression has been curtailed after left-wing backlash to the project caused it to be shut down.. “So, we installed the mural, and, as it started to evolve, the gay community spoke loudly about their displeasure that Elon Musk donated to the project, and that has reached a fever pitch, and the result is that the business owners have decided to remove the mural,” Ian Gaudreau, who was working on the project before its abrupt cancellation, told Fox News Digital. “I’m saddened by the fact that the mayor has called for the work to be removed before I was allowed to finish speaking,” he said. “I think that it is stifling my freedom of expression, my freedom of speech, and it’s unfortunate.”. On Aug. 22, Zarutska was stabbed to death in a random and unprovoked attack on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. Shocking surveillance video of the incident showed suspect Decarlos Brown Jr. allegedly stab Zarutska in the neck before calmly walking away as she bled out.. PROVIDENCE MAYOR CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF IRYNA ZARUTSKA MURAL, SAYS INTENT IS ‘DIVISIVE,’ ‘MISGUIDED’. The incident sparked a fierce political debate about criminal justice, as Brown had cycled through the criminal justice system for more than a decade, racking up 14 arrests and previously spending five years in prison.. Musk contributed $1 million to help fund a nationwide campaign of public murals depicting Zarutska.. Gaudreau explained that he wasn’t taking sides politically when he took the job painting the mural.. IRYNA’S LAW BRANDED ‘POLITICAL AGENDA’ AS SHERIFF WARNS OF JAIL OVERCROWDING. “I think that some people are not able to view the work for what it is — for the work that I have done — because they’re allowing their disdain for Elon to cloud their judgment of the work as itself, because the work as itself is a response to the entire conversation,” he said.. He said he was incorporating symbolism into his work that was itself a critique of the political flashpoint caused by Zarutska’s death that he thinks overshadowed her memory.. “And in the painting, she sort of shines through that, despite this strangling effort. And that’s what I want to symbolize here, is that Iryna was a human being with a mother and father who are still with us and are still grieving.”. DEM LAWMAKER SPARKS ONLINE FIRESTORM AFTER SAYING IRYNA ZARUTSKA MURAL DOESN’T ALIGN WITH CITY’S VALUES. Gaudreau also said his work was a response to how works of art depicting Zarutska, and their artists, have been treated. In early March, a mural of the young woman was defaced in Chicago.. “I’m making this work in reaction, post all of the conversation,” he said. “I have the benefit of being on the tail end of this project, in a sense, because I’ve seen how these murals have been treated in the past. I’ve seen that they’ve
