When driving on South and North boulevards in Oak Park, have you noticed swirls of color on the otherwise decaying concrete railroad retaining walls? Me too.
Walking the same route, I see a combination of murals by different artists with different themes. Who are these artists? What do these small murals signify and why are they on the railroad concrete retaining walls?
Jonathan Franklin‘s name is at the bottom of a number of these murals, and I reached out to him to find some answers
Jonathan painted his first mural when he was 20 years old while working as a volunteer in Israel at Kibbutz Kissufim, on the border with the Gaza Strip. Sadly, that kibbutz was attacked on Oct. 7. Jonathan knew some of the hostages and people killed and injured.
His next murals were painted at Irving School in Oak Park, where his children were students in the 1990s.
Given that this monthly series of articles is called “Favorite Things,” I asked Jonathan about his favorite mural. He doesn’t have one. Maybe that’s like asking a parent to name their favorite child.
From 2000 to 2003, he led summer art programs at Hephzibah Home, 946 North Blvd., which, according to their website, “serves some of the youngest victims of severe abuse, neglect and trauma and children in need of behavioral intervention, ages 3-11 in Illinois.” Over the course of three summers, he and the children painted a series of murals on the railroad viaducts across North Boulevard from Hephzibah Home. Most of those murals eventually deteriorated due to weather and efflorescence, the buildup of lime deposits that leach out of concrete cracks. So he painted his newest mural on the same space in 2023. It’s called “Joie de Vivre” (Joy of Life).
As we stood facing the mural, Jonathan told me it “is literally a joy to paint.” His initial plan was to paint children frolicking in a garden but as he reworked the sketch, the garden disappeared and what remained was “a night sky filled with stars that emanated from the beating drum of one of the dancers.”
He spent about 80 hours over 10 days painting it. Initially, the figures were just yellow figures, unadorned. But “word had it that, to some impressionable minds who lived across the street, the figures looked … naked. So I remedied that and added red stripes, which I think in the end were a good solution.”
Jonathan said the Oak Park Area Arts Council introduced the Mini-Mural Project in 2010. His first Mini-Mural was completed in 2011. It is located on the east side of Marion Street and South Blvd and called “Brush Off.” When I asked about the disconnected ears and blue lips, he told me he is “greatly influenced by Picasso, Chagall, Matisse and elements of Cubism, which by its nature conveys a sense of tension and dissonance. That is why the eyes may not align, the ears are detached, and anatomy is often distorted.”
Jonathan recently applied to paint another Mini-Mural through the Oak Park Area Arts Council’s Mini-Mural Program. Artists in our community who are interested in participating can get more information at https://www.oak-park.us/news/artists-sought-mini-mural-project-1, where applications will be accepted through June 7, 2024. To see more about the Mini-Murals project, readers can go to https://oakparkareaartscouncil.org/mini-murals.
Thank you, Jonathan Franklin, and all the concrete railroad embankment artists for giving our community vibrant colors and stories.
Joy Aaronson is an Oak Park resident who wrote a series of stories about Oak Park Farmers Market in 2023. Previously, she contributed to Chicago Parent and wrote the Kids’ World column for the former Logan Square Free Press.