M is for mystery.
An Illinois artist was left baffled after a man paid him to paint a mural of “Sesame Street’s” Cookie Monster on the side of a building — that he didn’t actually own.
Joshua Hawkins said he recently got an angry phone call from the actual owner of the Peoria building, “asking why the hell I painted this ‘crazy sh-t’ on his building.”
“Evidently the guy that hired me to paint the mural was NOT really the owner of the building!,” Hawkins wrote on Facebook.
The artist said a man he knew only as “Nate” called him the day after Thanksgiving and asked him to paint a mural of the beloved puppet with a caption in Russian that roughly translates to “World, Peace, Cookies” on the side of his vacant building.
Though he was hesitant to take the job because of the tight deadline, Hawkins said it was “one of the best paying commissions” he ever got — so he recruited some pals to help him finish the artwork in time.
Hawkins was given half of the “good amount” of money up front in cash, and “Nate” paid him the rest upon completion two days later, he told the Peoria Journal Star.
That was the last time Hawkins ever saw the mystery arts patron.
Meanwhile, the real owner of the building, Nate Comte, was fuming when he got back from Thanksgiving vacation and spotted the massive mural on his property.
“He threatened to call the police on me,” Hawkins said. “After that, it started to click.”
The side of building before after the mural was painted over. FacebookHawkins explained the backstory — but Comte didn’t believe him, telling the Journal Star that: “I don’t think anyone is that stupid.”
While he believes the work to be graffiti, Comte said he won’t press vandalism charges.
“I don’t hate art,” he said. “But don’t know what the hell that was.”
He’s since painted over the mural.
Looking back, the artist said he probably should have gotten more information from the person who commissioned the work.
“It was definitely a weird situation from the beginning, and we should have asked more questions,” Hawkins said.
His phone calls and text messages to the enigmatic “Nate” have gone unanswered.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. THIS IS INSANE,” Hawkins wrote on Facebook.
“I do apologize to the owner of the building, and while this is stressful and confusing– the fact remains that we were paid by someone!?”
