Mexican artist Carlos Alberto was home in Guadalajara City when he got a call from folks he knew at Street Art for Mankind, a nonprofit that commissions large-scale murals around the world to inspire social change. A London muralist had a family emergency and couldn’t finish an eight-story mural in Chicago. Could Alberto do it? Tomorrow?
“They called me Saturday, I flew on Sunday and I started to paint on Monday,” Alberto says of that spring weekend earlier this year. “I was sketching in the airport.”
The result is a massive mural on the south-facing wall of the Storage Mart building at 1015 N. Halsted St., in River North on the Near North Side. Alberto completed it in three days.
Titled “Bright Minds, Bold Future,” the mural celebrates childhood, education, nature, passion, innovation and the city of Chicago, he says.
“Although we live in a world where the development of new technologies has become imperative, it will always be necessary to be in harmony with our planet and learn to enjoy the bounties it offers us,” he says. “We can follow an innovative path without giving up what nature provides and enriches us.”
The mural features a girl with head thrown back, eyes closed and a big smile. She appears to be walking and listening to her headphones. Her dark hair is pulled into a disheveled bun, she wears an orange shirt, and the painting seems to capture her in a private moment, mid-stride.
Graduated stripes of yellow burst like sunbeams behind her, contrasting with the dark silhouettes of the Chicago skyline. A peregrine falcon, the official bird of the city, soars in front of her body. A geometrically illustrated butterfly flutters before her. At the bottom, daffodils in yellow and white contrast against a pinkish-purple chrysanthemum and other blooms that Alberto says he found while exploring Millennium Park near The Bean.
“I walk around the Cloud Gate and you have the background of flowers. It’s very inspirational,” Alberto says.
At eight stories, the mural towers over Halsted Street and the mostly shorter buildings that surround it.
“You can say this is a big mural, but I’m used to those,” Alberto says, noting that he usually paints on walls of this size.
Now, Alberto is in Aruba, on to his next mural. But he reflects fondly upon his few days in the Windy City.
“Creating this mural has been a great experience for me. Chicago is an internationally recognized city of art, so it’s a huge privilege to leave a mark of my work in this wonderful space,” he says. “Street Art for Mankind is one of the best organizations internationally promoting urban art, so producing something with them always guarantees a great project, and I hope everyone can enjoy this mural for many years to come.”