Rick Castro Jr., who goes by the artist name Gnome174, has painted an alley wall near the corner of South Wolcott and South Blue Island avenues about once every 18 months since 1995.
It has held a space gnome and aviator bunny, a regaled sea turtle, and an astronaut dog and alien-looking monkey, among other creations.
Now, the wall features images of three female characters in tribute to Castro’s three daughters.
“I wanted to paint more feminine characters,” says Castro, who grew up in Pilsen and now lives on the border of Garfield Park and Clearing. His older daughters are in their 20s, and his youngest is 10, he says.
The wall is painted a chocolate-and-caramel background with the three girls, one appearing to be a robot, posed in a sort of triangle. The girl in the back, whose head towers above the other two, sports purple, helmet-type headgear with aviator-like glasses, a purple scarf and yellow shirt. Her face shows a “take no prisoners” look.
The girl on the bottom left wears a look of contempt as she gazes out wearing a pink dress with pink and purple tights, gloves, jacket, scarf and hair.
The robot girl on the bottom right has gray hair in a bob and big gold eyes peering out from her metallic face. She’s wearing an expression of curiosity, with gold coins and onyx orbs around her head, hair and dress.
Castro doesn’t talk to his two older daughters as much now that they’re grown, he says. But he’s encouraging his youngest, Ava, to go into the arts. If she wants spray paints and a mask respirator, he’ll buy them for her.
“I dump art materials on her a lot,” Castro says. He keeps all of her artwork, too, and encourages her to fill reams of drawing notebooks that he saves, like he did growing up. But he doesn’t want to pressure her too much.
“As long as you’re happy, that’s what matters in art,” he says.
When Castro first got permission to paint this wall, he added his first creation in 1995. Over the years neighbors will call if he hasn’t repainted in a while, wondering when he’ll introduce something new.
Castro is also a member of CMK Crew, which has painted largely around Pilsen and the Lower West Side for decades. The crew notoriously vandalized the top of the former Damen Silos with a giant iteration of their logo. He’s seen the perception of graffiti change from something that’s stigmatized to something that’s cool.
When that happens, “I’m like, no, you didn’t go through it,” he says, referring to the days of graffiti wars and dodging city crews who would cover graffiti in mud-colored paint.
As for what’s next at the Wolcott and Blue Island corner, Castro says he’s still working on it.
“That’s the beauty of graffiti. It’s up, it’s beautiful, it’s gone,” he says. This mural was painted in March. “As far as what’s next there, I don’t even know.”