SPORTS

Derek Mason mural receives makeover

Nick Cole

ncole@tennessean.com

While Vanderbilt's Derek Mason was coaching Saturday's Black and Gold spring football game, his face on a nearby mural was receiving a makeover.

The painting, which is located on the corner of 28th and West End avenues, drew criticism from the school's NAACP chapter for its likeness to minstrelsy era art.

But after Saturday's revisions, the prevailing opinion of passersby who were leaving the Vanderbilt game was positive.

In this illustration, the before and after stages of the mural painted by Michael Cooper depicting Vanderbilt football coach Derek Mason on a wall on 28th Avenue in Nashville, Tenn. are shown. At left is the mural shown before the changes. At center is a picture of the photograph muralist Michael Cooper used to repaint the portrait Saturday, April 12, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. At right is the finished painting shown April 12. Critics claimed the old painting portrayed his skin tone too dark and his lips too white. The differences in the images may be more nuanced because of the camera angle, lighting and weather conditions at the time the photos were taken.

"I didn't think it was a true likeness of the coach and I had commented to friends that it didn't really look like him," said Bill Rooney, a Vanderbilt fan from Thompson's Station. "I think this looks much more like him. I just saw him at the spring game and saw him up close and in my opinion it's an excellent representation of what the coach, facially, looks like."

Said Commodores fan Larry Cree of Hendersonville: "When I first saw the mural, I thought it was a pretty accurate depiction of the picture that the guy had to work with, but I didn't like the picture and I thought they could have had a better picture. Looking at it today, I think they've really done a nice job of making it more accurate."

Muralist Michael Cooper, who has worked on the painting of Vanderbilt coaches since 1991, completed the alterations to his work in just over an hour.

"I took the exact same picture that they had given me before and just added a few highlights," Cooper said. "I worked on some reflection and just some facial features and some more details. But that's really all it was."

Cooper said he used other photographs of Mason to get a better idea of what needed to be changed on his original painting.

PHOTOS:Vanderbilt spring football game

"I have had zero negative comments," said Cooper, who fielded several questions from onlookers as he completed his work. "Everybody has been very, very supportive."

Vanderbilt NAACP president Akailah Jenkins, who was part of a group that launched an on-campus petition to get the off-campus mural altered, complained that Mason's skin was too dark and lips were too white in the original painting. She said she planned to view the alterations made by Cooper but hadn't yet.

VIDEO:Vanderbilt spring football game

Mason did not have plans to view the painting after Saturday's game. Vanderbilt assistant director of communications Larry Leathers said Mason would have no further comment on the mural.

Reach Nick Cole at 615-259-8010 and on Twitter @ncole6.