Chicago murals: ‘Artists of the Wall Festival’ saw over 160 murals go up along a seawall at Loyola Park in Rogers Park

The 30th annual festival last weekend was the latest in the mural-painting effort that sees new images go up there each year.

By Sun-Times staff

The mural by Hannah Paschke shows a dog that seems to smile as it wades into water so clear you can see its feet below the surface.

Paschke painted it last weekend, one of more than 160 murals that went up during the “Artists of the Wall Festival” at Loyola Park, where a 600-foot seawall has been decorated anew each year since 1993.

Paschke, 20, says her dog is “a composite of several inspirations and references.”

“He’s based mostly on my dog Buddy, but I thought of him as a general celebration of all the dogs of Rogers Park,” says Paschke, who grew up in Geneva and is headed into her junior year at nearby Loyola University Chicago, where she’s studying social work.

A closeup of Hannah Paschke’s mural of a swimming dog.

“During the last few years, the beach has become a sacred place to my friends and I,” she says. “As college students, one thing we miss most is our dogs back at home. Coming to the beach and meeting neighborhood dogs has been really special. Getting to play with a cute dog does miracles for all the stress of being a student and being on our own for the first time.

“My painting is a ‘thank you’ to all the dogs that I have met here and to their families for sharing their love and joy with me.”

Her painting — among the winners chosen in the festival’s competition — was one of many murals there that had an animal theme, including a cat mural just steps from Paschke’s piece.

A cat mural on the Rogers Park seawall that was decorated last weekend with new murals.

“The real Buddy has never met a cat, as far as I know,” Paschke says. “But I believe the dog in my painting loves cats.”

Another mural, by Ravenswood artist Vanessa Joy King, has opossums “hanging out with their family, playing and enjoying the day at beach.

“I chose to paint them because they can represent artists and even the murals on the wall,” King says. “Opossums are common in our area yet often under-appreciated or misunderstood. They actually offer a lot of benefits to our ecosystem.

Opossums are the focal point of Ravenswood artist Vanessa Joy King’s mural.

“They also have very short life spans, much like the murals themselves. They really have to make the most of their precious time.”

King says that, after all of the mural-painting last weekend, “I realized that many people have an emotional response to opossums, for better or worse. There were many stories of opossum rescues and fears. They seem to be any animal we all can connect to in some way.”