The Providence musician says the removal of the Musk-funded wall has stifled free speech
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A Providence, Rhode Island artist commissioned to paint a portrait of slain Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska said she feels her freedom of speech has been curtailed after left-wing backlash over the project prompted its closure.
“So, we put the mural up, and when it first came out, the gay community was very vocal about their displeasure that Elon Musk contributed 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 sudden cancellation, told Fox News Digital.
“It saddens me that the mayor suggested that the job be removed before I was allowed to finish speaking,” he said. “I think it diminishes my freedom of speech, my freedom of expression, and it’s unfortunate.”
An unfinished mural by Iryna Zarutska on the side of the Dark Lady club at 19 Snow St. in Providence, seen on March 30, 2026. (David DelPoio/The Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
On August 22, Zarutska was stabbed to death in a random and unprovoked attack on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. Shocking surveillance video shows suspect Decarlos Brown Jr. who allegedly stabbed Zarutska in the neck before she left peacefully as she bled.
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The incident sparked a heated political debate about criminal justice, as Brown cycled through the criminal justice system for more than a decade, making 14 arrests and previously serving five years in prison.
Musk donated $1 million to help fund a national campaign for murals featuring Zarutska.
Gaudreau explained that he was politically neutral when he took on the task of painting the mural.
Memorial dedicated to Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 11, 2025. (Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“I think some people can’t see the work for what it is — the work I’ve done — because they let their disdain for Elon cloud their judgment of the work itself, because the work itself is the answer to every conversation,” he said.
He said he was including symbols in his work which was to criticize the political upheaval caused by Zarutska’s death which he thought overshadowed his memory.
“And in the painting, she seems to shine in that, despite this hard effort. And that’s what I want to show here, that Iryna was a person with a mother and father who are still with us and who are still sad.”
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Iryna Zarutska is scared as her attacker climbs on top of her on Aug. 22, 2025. (NewsNation via Charlotte Area Transit System)
Gaudreau also said that his work is a response to how the works of art depicting Zarutska, and their artists, have been treated. In early March, a mural of a young woman was vandalized in Chicago.
“I’m doing this job in response, I’m sending every conversation,” he said. “I have the advantage of being at the tail end of this project, in a way, because I’ve seen how these murals have been treated in the past. I’ve seen them damaged, I’ve seen fellow artists dragged through the mud by choosing to paint, and my job is to respond to all of that.”
The mural was set to be displayed outside The Dark Lady, an LGBT bar in Providence.
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When the bar received a blowback, it first defended itself against criticism, commenting on Instagram that “Anyone of you who knows yourself personally – even for five minutes – knows that the illegal intentions expressed here are completely false.”
As pressure mounted, the bar put the project on hold, and later canceled it entirely.
During the scrutiny, Democratic Mayor of Providence Brett Smiley slammed the mural.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley speaks during a news conference after the shooting on the campus of Brown University on Dec. 13, 2025 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Libby O’Neill/Getty Images)
“The murder of the person depicted in this painting is a tragic tragedy, but the wrongful, divisive intent of funding murals like those across the country is divisive and does not represent Providence,” in a statement, later adding that he wants to “encourage our community to support local artists whose work brings us closer together rather than dividing us.”
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He later doubled down in an interview with WPRI.
“I regret the situation in politics today where everything is political and controversial and difficult,” he said in an interview. “There is nothing we should be doing to end the tragedy of the deaths of the people we represented here, but it was distorted by our president’s wrong tweet and then there was an organization funded by some billionaires, and it found its way into our society.
“The private owner of the building decided to put a mural on the wall which I think he fully understood, and I was asked if I thought it should come down, I thought it should come down,” said Smiley. “I didn’t stop anyone’s speech, it was their decision to keep it or take it down, but it certainly didn’t bring us together as a community. There were really angry protests on both sides, a lot of hate speech online, so I don’t think we’re a stronger, more united community because of this mural, so I thought the best thing to do was take it down.”
