BLM Mural Uptown by 18 artists — taken by Carson Cloud
A group of 18 artists took to an Uptown Chicago street Saturday to paint a large, colorful mural to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
The large mural in the 4700 block of Clifton Avenue, between North Broadway Avenue and Lawrence Avenue, spells out the slogan in bright colors.
The lettering of the street mural was done by Heart and Bone, with each letter painted by a different artist, according to Uptown United Business District Manager Justin Weidl.
Weidl said there's another smaller version of the mural on the sidewalk on the southeast corner of Leland Ave. and N. Broadway Ave, which was painted by another set of artists.
"That block of Clifton Avenue is one-way and a single lane. There is no on-street parking or lane markings, so it was a blank canvas," Weidl said. "There is little to no access or egress to properties from this block of Clifton and low vehicular traffic on this block would allow for a longer life of the mural."
Weidl explained that the location was chosen due to its visibility from the CTA train at the Lawrence CTA station platform. He said nearby tall buildings allowed for better photography and videography.
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For each letter, these different artists designed using their unique style:
B- JC Rivera
L- Uptown Design Studio
A- Darius Dennis
C- Amy Lee
K- David Najib Kasir
L- Kyle Intes Hudson
I- Shala.
V- Daniel Wilson
E- World Wide Zeb
S- Shannon Lewis
M- PORTEAIR
A- AFROKILLA
T- Rodney Duran
T- Joe Miller
E- We All Live Here
R- Raquel Hung
"Each letter conveys the unique perspective or purpose of each artist, but that they all agree that that Black Lives Matter," Weidl said.
