An artist who painted messages on the ‘Be Someone’ railroad bridge is speaking out after prosecutors dropped a felony graffiti charge.
The bridge is famous for its best-known graffiti – the ‘Be Someone’ sign, which first appeared in 2012 and has been painted over and repainted multiple times since.
In 2020, Chandrika Metivier began dangling from the bridge over the North Freeway to write messages like ‘No war, know peace’ and ‘Vote or die.’
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“It was always only to raise the consciousness of humanity,” Metivier said.
Metivier left a total of five messages from September 2020 to January 2023. A month after painting “woman, life, freedom,” a felony graffiti charge was filed.
“It was sort of humiliating at first because I didn’t realize that they weren’t celebrating those messages as the city was celebrating some of the messages,” Metivier said.
The ‘Be Someone’ sign itself is widely considered iconic.