Artist creates a mural of Michelle Obama as Egyptian Queen, lands in hot water

A new mural of former US first lady Michelle Obama depicting her as an Egyptian queen and painted on a building in the Chicago neighborhood where she lived as a child has courted controversy.

Shortly after Chicago artist Chris Devins finished the mural last Friday, criticism began bubbling up online.

People accused him of copying the image from Rhode Island art student Gelila Mesfin, who had posted a nearly identical portrait of Michelle on Instagram last year, CNN reported.

News of the mural’s existence came as a huge surprise to Mesfin, too.

“How can you just steal someone’s artwork… someone’s hard work and claim it like it’s yours…” she wrote Saturday in an Instagram post.

Mesfin said, “It’s one thing to share or even profit from someone’s work but to claim it as yours is just wrong!” Devins has denied any wrongdoing. He said he did not know who Mesfin was prior to last week and only learned of her artwork after someone on Instagram notified him of her accusations.

“I credited Ms. Mesfin for her work immediately. I’ve taken the heat and will gladly do so as long as the kids have a mural they can look up to,” he …read more