I remember when the lightbulb went off, about a year ago. I was riding the CTA Green Line from Hyde Park to the Loop. I looked out the window as we approached the Indiana stop, when lo and behold, there it was.
During the summer before my junior year of high school, I took a mural art class. The plan was to have finished a mural by the end of the summer that would be hung in the wing where the school radio and closed-circuit television stations were produced. Since none of us had ever attempted such a task, our teacher brought us to the Elliott Donnelley Youth Center on the South Side of the city. I don't remember what the inside looked like; we spent a lot of time in the community art garden, an oasis among the dilapidated buildings. I took lots of photographs of the mural on the wall--the style reminded me of that of Thomas Hart Benton, an artist about whom I was writing a biography for this class, who painted flowing scenes on large canvases. I also photographed the sculptures from different angles, and with other students leaning against them or examining them. One cone-shaped sculpture was painted bright yellow with red dots. A stone gazebo was inlaid with polished stones and shining tiles. There were also large painted tiles and other things too, which I didn't photograph and can't remember. That was 1996. For 9 years, those photographs have been floating around in my drawers, mixed in with other photos from parties and such, hiding behind books. Until I looked out the train window, I had no recollection of where that mural and sculpture garden were located. (Until I moved to the city of Chicago, I had no idea there was anything else besides Michigan Ave. and Clark-and-Belmont.)
And when I saw the mural on that youth center wall, it was the weirdest thing, like spending 9 years looking at a photo of a person you met once, then walking past them on the street, looking exactly like the photo. It was like finding a long-lost friend. Only this friend's facade had faded. The mural seems to be in pretty good shape, at least from a distance. But the bright yellow cone-shaped sculpture is faded to a gritty pale tan, and the stone gazebo looks tired and worn. But it's all still there, just like I remembered it in the photo. Perhaps one day this summer, I'll stop onto the center, photos in hand, and offer to help out with something.
If you want to see a photo of the Elliott Donnelley Community Art Garden, go here
The mural on the taller building on the right is the one I have so many photographs of. You can see the yellow cone-shaped sculpture just in front of it, and the stone gazebo is in the middle, right in front of the train rail.
If you want to see what the area looked like before the restoration, go here
