Glance at The Three Senators mural on 79th Street and the focus is obvious: former U.S. Sens. Carol Moseley Braun, Roland Burris and senator-turned-U.S. President Barack Obama — all from the South Side and two from Chatham where the mural hangs.
Fireworks explode behind the exultant faces of the state’s three Black senators. Images of the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Illinois State Capitol, Chicago City Hall and Rainbow PUSH Headquarters frame their profiles in a vibrant collage.
Look a little harder, and you might spot Burris’ wife, Berlean M. Burris, in a crowd of faces. The roof of the Burris home, which the family bought from the late gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, peeks up into the crowd. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot appears twice, along with other Chicago luminaries, celebrities and elected officials. Jackson’s favorite lavender Cadillac is hidden in there, too, turning the mural by Uptown artist Mike Stidham into a Chicago-centric version of “Where’s Waldo?”
Burris, who is in his 80s and who, along with Braun, is from Chatham, says he’s glad to see the mural while he can appreciate it, “instead of coming after the Lord has taken me out of here and I’ve gone to the great world beyond.”
“The art work is fantastic,” he says. “I just hope to let our young people know that this is what you can aspire to be.”
Stidham says he hopes the mural captivates passersby, making them pause and see whom they can identify among the dozens of faces. Primarily a ceramicist and painter, Stidham used Photoshop for the first time to create the mural, and the lifelong doodler says he considers the final product “one big digital doodle.”
“Art is a language for me, so I just started speaking,” he says of the assignment. “I want to make art that people want to keep looking at and find new things in for years to come.”
Stidham says he was “shocked” to see the final version of his mural, which he created on a computer screen before it was blown up, printed and hung by others.
“I don’t think I got the full impact until I saw it,” he says. “I’m proud to have been able to do that.”
Stidham moved to Chicago in 2010 from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He stayed and plans to “continue to try to make my mark on the city.”
The Three Senators is one of the newest murals added this summer to Mahalia’s Mile, a stretch of South 79th Street between State Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. Mahalia’s Mile is named after Jackson, an internationally famous gospel music pioneer, civil rights activist and small business supporter.
The Mahalia’s Mile corridor and surrounding neighborhoods historically served as an anchor of Chicago’s Black community, and the Greater Chatham Initiative seeks to revitalize the 79th Street strip.