'It's upsetting': Koi fish street art on Milwaukee's east side defaced with anti-gay slur
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — You may not know his name, but you've likely seen his art all over Milwaukee.
Jeremy Novy paints koi fish in public places across the globe. Recently, one of his Milwaukee installations received an unwelcome addition.
Three of Novy's koi fish are now a stain on the sidewalk on Milwaukee's east side.
"Really, it's upsetting," said Dana Alexander Kaleta, who lives near the piece. "Someone's clearly hurting. Someone really has a lot of anger, and that's kind of what we don't need right now."
Novy's original piece
The piece has been defaced, with a homophobic slur next to it.
“I found it very shocking. Something like this has not happened to my art anywhere that I travel," Novy told CBS 58 on Tuesday.
He doesn't know if it was targeted, but either way, it feels personal.
“I am gay," Novy said. "To call me a [expletive] is a personal insult, it’s a slur word.”
Novy stenciled his first koi fish 20 years ago near University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he went to art school.
Now, you can find them all over the world.
“A lot of my other street art really has to do with creating queer visibility and a visual safe space for my community," Novy explained.
Last year, he painted the rainbow crosswalks in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood.
Around that same time, just blocks from his alma mater, a homeowner on E. Hampshire Street and N. Hackett Avenue asked him to paint koi on her sidewalk.
“She really wanted them to be something for everybody, people in the neighborhood, people that pass by," Novy said. "Just to bring them a little moment of joy."
Recently, someone covered the koi with black paint. Novy and the homeowner both assumed it was done by someone who thought they were graffiti.
“With public art, you really can't control who interacts with it, " he said. "You just hope that the person is nice and having a good day.”
He freshly repainted the fish over the weekend, but just one day later, they were defaced again. This time, with bright green paint and the gay slur.
“It’s a very accepting neighborhood, so that is not a message I’d expect in my backyard," Kaleta said.
Novy and the neighbors have no idea who did it, or why.
"They’re just the black, orange and white koi. They don’t actually have rainbow coloring in them," Novy explained. "There's nothing around them that signifies a nod or giving honor to my community, the queer community.”
Now, he's brainstorming with the homeowner to find a way to keep the koi there while keeping them safe from hate.
“A lot of people really enjoy and resonate with this image of the koi being a very peaceful, not political thing in the world," Novy said.
Click here to learn more about the artist.