Oak Park Mural

In the spring of 2011 I was commissioned to paint a mural along the railroad embankment in downtown Oak Park. This was truly one of the most enjoyable projects I have ever worked on as an artist. I loved the challenge of taking one of my favorite textile collages and blowing it up from 8 inches high to 8 feet high!

I felt a great sense of gratification contributing to and being connected with my community. Plenty of complete strangers stopped to chat as they were walking past; giving me their words of encouragement and sharing their excitement about how the murals were transforming their community.

The mural on Oak Park Avenue and South Boulevard.

My first step was to use a projector to blow the image of the original 8 inch high textile up to 8 feet high. It

The next step was to cut up a very large piece of paper into a whole lot of little templates.

The village cleaned and primed the panel on the concrete embankment for me.

Spring in the Chicago area is not the best time to be working outside. Fortunately I had my Mobile Art Studio to take refuge in.

The concrete provided an interesting texture to work with, but was murder on my pens!

I spent quite a few days elevated on my scaffolding. My husband and son were quite excited to get to build it for me as their contribution.

I had a large print out of the original piece for reference and to show passers by what the completed piece would look like.

This photo was taken by a professional sports photographer who saw me painting and took some shots.

A great thing about working in a public space is the people who stop by to chat. One man who stopped by and chatted with me was a musician who bought me a muffin and coffee and a muffin at the Red Hen bakery. Much appreciated on a cold day!

The mural finally starting to look like something.

The mural joins several others along the embankment

I was sorry to have to call it done because I enjoyed working on it so much.

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The mural is just West of the Oak Park “L” stop on the Green Line at Oak Park Avenue and South Boulevard.

Jeanette Durand – Fine Arts – Paintings & Textiles

Oak Park Mural