Mystery surrounds the circumstances where street art created by local legend ‘Catsy’ was painted over.
The eye catching doodles in the form of black cats have appeared in various public locations around the town since lockdown.
The identity of ‘Catsy’ remains a mystery too. A social media profile linked to the creator says the Wokingham-based artist is “trying to spread smiles and positivity with the aid of some friendly cats.”
Last week, Wokingham Today was made aware that a ‘Catsy’ has been painted over on the footbridge linking St Pauls Gate with the nearby church.
A spokesperson for Wokingham Town Council told Wokingham Today it would only remove rude or obscene images and/or messages, and it was confident none of its staff had painted over the images on this occasion.
The spokesperson said: “Wokingham Borough Council now only removes graffiti that is considered offensive.
“Wokingham Town Council tries to remove more, including tags etc from walls, metre boxes, street signs, bus shelters, bins etc.
“Most of the graffiti work we do is removal from property we don’t own or manage.
“When it comes to the Catsy images, we would only remove these if they have been sprayed over with other graffiti.
“We certainly don’t touch them otherwise.”
Once made aware of the mystery disappearance, Catsy sprung into action, refreshing and repainting several works.
The artist said: “I’ve replaced the ones on the footbridge, and a couple more may have appeared whilst I was out fixing them.”
Last week, we reported how vandals had damaged a Catsy in Wokingham town centre, near the Red Lion.
Catsy also confirmed that one had been repaired.
“I do try to keep my work discreet and inoffensive so as not to be considered a nuisance,” the artist said.
