Work on Jota mural near Anfield set to begin
- Published
Liverpool artist Paul Curtis is set to paint a Diogo Jota mural and contribute thousands of pounds to charity after a fan appeal.
Curtis, who has painted over 250 public pieces in the region - including the likes of Bill Shankly and the late Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams - hoped to raise £2,000 to cover the costs of the upcoming piece.
The sum was gathered in 35 minutes online and as the crowdfunder appeal now stands at over £21,000, the excess funds will go to good causes.
"The crowdfunder will be open for the next four weeks," said Curtis, who hopes to start his painting on Monday, 14 July and complete the work inside a week.
"Now, everything you donate will go to the foundation that will be set up in the future. The club are working to sort this out.
"A massive thanks to everyone who has donated. I have been getting donations from Japan, America. It's a measure of the guy - he touched people beyond football.
"I think there is a plan to set up a foundation in the two brothers' names. That has given me an obvious place for where the money can go."
Curtis told BBC Radio Merseyside he has already been offered and accepted a wall to paint on in the shadows of Anfield.
He will put two or three proposed designs on social media and wants fans to select the final mural, which is expected to feature both Jota and his brother Andre Silva after the pair were tragically killed in a car accident on 3 July.
Curtis has won awards for his work in the past and was praised for his mural of the late Williams, who was one of the most prominent campaigners in the decades that followed the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.
"It's very nerve-racking as you are representing somebody's memory, especially to her family," said Curtis.
"There's a lot of pressure and if I am being honest, I am getting those sort of feelings now. I have got to get this right. There's a lot of focus on it. You really want to represent him in a way that's suitable. It does make you nervous.
"We need to celebrate him as well. He probably wants us to remember him as the player, as the person who made us want to go to the football. I want it to not forever be mournful, to be a celebration as well."
