Artist MTO Breaks Silence On ‘Fast Life,’ ‘Robin Hood’ Murals

French-born artist MTO who created the controversial “Fast Life” and “Robin Hood” murals in the Central Cocoanut and Burns Square neighborhoods has broke his silence about the art to give his side of the story. 

During the controversy from the past 10 months over his murals on the Tube Dude plant and , MTO declined interview requests to the media leaving businesses owners here left to explain as much as they could without speaking for the artist.

MTO e-mailed a three-page PDF Thursday morning that was translated into English with the help of two friends explaining how a “fascinating and unpremeditated cultural clash” formed through an “exaggerated local media drama and a publicity storytelling” was seen through his eyes. 

Through his experiences, even with the disappointments along the way, he thanks Sarasota for being a “really interesting conceptual laboratory” and announced he will return to this year’s Sarasota Chalk Festival. 

“Therefore, I can never thank enough all the protagonists of this story for giving me the chance to assist and to participate at an experience like this and for such a passion for one of my works,” MTO wrote. “I am very flattered and I’ll see you again to the next edition of the festival because I just got officially re-invited …

I’ll be back!”

Read MTO’s complete story in the PDF to the right of this story.

Fast Life/Fat Lie 

This all started in October during the Chalk Festival when MTO and other street artists spray painted murals as part of the

“I expected some complaints concerning the graffiti or the hip-hop aspect of the work, but naively I did never imagine that this particular painting could be associated with gang criminality,” MTO wrote. “Hand signs might originally come from gangs, even if I personally doubt it, but today they are used by many social groups like surfers, skaters, scouts, heavy-metals, hip-hoppers etc. 

“The graffiti movement created within the hip-hop culture is indeed illegal but different levels of criminality need to be distinguished. Graffiti is not a synonym for gang criminality. In the same way tattoos are not a synonym for jail. I believe that this natural assimilation of “hip-hop = crime” and “tattoo = prisoner”, has to be questioned as it is the basis of the painting interpretation and somehow also the roots of the whole story.”

MTO continued to say he didn’t know about the makeup of the neighborhood but really, the purpose of his piece was aimed at Sarasota’s city center: “Fat Life is a Fat Lie.” 

“The original title of the piece was meant to be “Fast life, fat life, fat lie”. This visual wordplay is the reason why the words “Fast Life”, tattooed on interested me so much,” MTO wrote.

During the controversy, Chalk Festival Founder Denise Kowal had artists add “ “it’s a…let love express it” in a banner, he explained.

“But it didn’t make any difference, the population of Sarasota already had appropriated the piece through its own cultural and moral references and the discussion around it,” MTO wrote. “This debate wasn’t mine at all; therefore I did not consider myself legitimate to enter the discussion anymore. I realized that my intended message was not relevant to be revealed yet and remained undiscovered which I appreciated, given that at this point, the exposure of the real message would have most certainly signed the death warrant of the mural. I was no longer involved in the future of the mural.”

“Despite the many false things that were said and written about me, I never tried to interfere in the debate, neither on my own nor with the help of Denise. I did never influence any of the “protagonist’s” actions. I just kept silence and waited to see what would happen.”

MTO took aim at owner Scott Gerber, w, . MTO calls the owner “Mr. Scott “showman” Gerber adding he was disappointed Gerber removed the mural.

“On the other side I didn’t appreciate the process that led to the decision to paint over it nor the pressure the city hall was putting on Mr. Gerber,” MTO wrote. “A biased-content survey with oriented questions done by some opponents of the painting was only conducted in the 'safe part' of the concerned neighborhood and still resulted in approximate 50/50, slightly in favor for it to stay. Therefore, about 20 influential people (as fair as their arguments could have been) were able to take precedence over more than one thousand supporters and made the piece disappear.

“I started to think that the hidden content, as far as it may have been from the community’s interpretation and debate, was maybe somehow illustrated in this reaction. This situation seemed very interesting to me in different aspects.

"The whole story got a sense by itself. The painting and its story until the death became another artistical piece, which I would call here 'Fat Lie.'

“This piece was born from an unpremeditated collaboration between the city of Sarasota and me. 'Fast Life' was finally a good title for that mural as it perfectly describes the story of the mural. 

"With the fall of the mural 'Fast Life,' Sarasota’s 'Fat Life' had finalized the piece 'Fat Lie.'"

Robin Hood 

Following the fall of “Fat Lie,” MTO said he returned to make a statement and an answer to his removed mural, spending a month in Sarasota to “observe listen, to try to better understand the piece “Fat Lie”, and to analyze it.”

“ Robin is a doctor and gives the vision of the good and the politically correct, the ‘good black’ — good in every sense and reassuring for the conservatives,” MTO wrote. “He is undoubtedly integrated and socially notable because of his professional rank. He signifies us that this city is sick.

“Sick because of its navel-gazing, its excess of money, its chloroformed moral, its avidity, its political correctness, its latent racism, its anti-youthism. Its desire that nothing never moves. Its relational superficiality, which is only based on the appearances.

The model fort he painting, Kenneth Blake inspired him “being nearly the only black person that I could see in the town center, except tramps.”

For Hood, which this related mural is in Burns Court,  he is the “incarnation of the evil,” MTO writes. 

“He represents everything which is detested and rejected. Therefore I chose Roger J. Naughton. To use his tattoos graphically but also because for me he was the best example of non-gangster tattooed guy I could find,” MTO wrote. “Just a nice young guy who accepted to be my model with lots of modesty and discretion.”

During the day, Dr. Robin listens to Sarasota, he explained, and “tries to solve their problems by calling the attention of citizens and leaders to the neighborhood” while Mr. Hood “at night, discretely sneaks into the city center to free the city from its haters by blowing arrows of love.”

The biggest controversy over the mural became the word “bulls---“ on the mural until it was covered by MTO later.

“Two months later, we can note that the second controversy quickly stopped and was only made on Dr. Robin,” MTO wrote. 

“The owner of Architectural Salvage did not face any pressure and he did not try to use and abuse medias for his personal publicity benefit. This seems to confirm the diagnosis.” 

MTO MURAL COVERAGE

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