{"id":2778,"date":"2025-10-24T16:26:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2025-10-24T16:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:26:13","slug":"chicago-murals-in-rogers-park-taking-the-horror-out-of-a-viaduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2778","title":{"rendered":"Chicago murals: In Rogers Park, taking the horror out of a viaduct"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The viaduct over the intersection of West Sherwin and North Greenview avenues once served as the backdrop for a short 2015 horror film, \u201cThe Underpass<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameras focused on ceilings pocked with peeling paint, cobweb-covered lights and dirty murals. <\/p>\n

While the main mural featured in the movie was fresh in 2014, the others had dingy water stains and peeling paint. Chipped and cracked ceiling beams, dead ivy shoots and the buzz of old fluorescent lights rounded out the scene.<\/p>\n

Enter Jim Ginderske of Rogers Park<\/a>, who decided the viaduct with the creepy and haunted feel should not send pedestrians on a walking detour around Jarvis Square to avoid it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat thing was a real horror show,\u201d Ginderske says. \u201cI got tired of looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in 2024 Ginderske got to work, scraping about five pounds of peeling paint off the posts, the walls and the ceiling. He painted the posts\u2019 arches lilac to complement the yellow warning color at street level.<\/p>\n

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Artist Kate Rad painted these columns under the viaduct.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Then, Ginderske restored and repainted the wall that reads \u201cWelcome to Rogers Park,\u201d and \u201cRich in History\/Rich in Diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, Rogers Park artist Candice Johnson (who goes by Candice With an Eye) painted white-with-black tree trunks resembling aspens on many of the posts, Ginderske says. <\/p>\n

Aaron Wooten, who painted one of the original murals, repainted the wall with a new one portraying a Rogers Park street scene. <\/p>\n

Kate Rad added her work, while Johnson and Tiger Bitch are working on another mural.<\/p>\n

The multiple walls are a work in progress, with other community members welcome to share their talents there, too.<\/p>\n

A group of kids who walked by added their handprints, and Johnson also put up a community bulletin board. A graffiti-and-sticker-covered stop sign remains. Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) helped secure new lighting.<\/p>\n

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Rogers Park resident Jim Ginderske restored the \u201cWelcome to Rogers Park\u201d mural on a viaduct at West Sherwin and North Greenview avenues.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Recently restored and newly replaced murals can be seen on the walls and columns of a viaduct located at the West Sherwin Avenue and North Greenview Avenue intersection in Rogers Park neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Over the past two years, Rogers Park artist Candice Johnson painted white-with-black tree trunks resembling aspens on many of the posts.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere \/ Sun-Times<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Artists Candice Johnson (Candice with an Eye), Tiger Bitch and other community members worked on this mural collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe want this shared public space to amplify who we are as a community,\u201d Ginderske says. \u201cIf you walk under there and feel depressed and worried you\u2019re going to get jumped, and you can\u2019t see anything, and there\u2019s crap everywhere. We want people to feel lifted up when they\u2019re passing through a shared space. That\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shenicka Hohenkirk, Hadden\u2019s ward director, says the viaduct now reflects the feeling of bustling Jarvis Square. <\/p>\n

With the underpass upgrades, \u201cGetting off the CTA looks welcoming,\u201d Hohenkirk says. \u201cIt brings the same energy that the businesses have on that corridor.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The \u201cSeasons in Time\u201d mural is featured in the 2015 short horror film \u201cThe Underpass,\u201d a film by Sword & Cloak Productions and artistic director David Schmidt. The mural is by artists Katherine Ross, Karen Zissis, Tim Morrison and others at Kinc design firm.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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