CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Two months after the Chicago Park District whitewashed her piping plover mural , Uptown artist Ashley Kennedy took her paint and brushes and got back to work inside the Buena Avenue pedestrian tunnel located underneath DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
"I'm feeling great,” Kennedy said. “I'm really, really excited.”
Kennedy’s mural, which showed one of the city's beloved piping plovers, was only up for three weeks before it was painted over.
Irene Tostado, with the Chicago Park District, first told WBBM that the park district “did not paint over the mural located at the Buena Avenue Underpass.” Later, though, Tostado sent a follow-up and said the park district did indeed paint over the mural after they learned that Kennedy “did not go through any process with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for installation on public property.”
“Security reported the mural as vandalism and the painters were dispatched,” Tostado wrote.
The act to paint over the mural garnered frustration from Uptown residents, community groups and even the local Ald. Angela Clay (46th).
Uptown resident Joey said his “heart just sank” after finding that the mural was whitewashed.
“My first thought was how effing stupid do you have to be to paint over, to whitewash something … that's obviously a real work of art,” he said.
Joey said he's looking forward to the new one.
“I loved it the first time,” he said. “I'll love it again.”
His thoughts were shared by other residents, too. Within the first hour of Kennedy repainting the mural Monday, several people stopped to express their excitement and gratitude for the new mural.
"I hope it goes well,” said one passerby. “I'm excited to see it again.”
This time, Kennedy said she got approval from the alderwoman, with the help from community group Friends of the Peace Garden. The group put up a flier at the tunnel that reads: “The Office of the 46th Ward Alderwoman Angela Clay has advised us that it will do its best to protect artwork on these tunnel walls provided that first the artists seek permission from her Office.”
"I signed up, sent her an email, submitted my design and told her, ‘It's me, I want to paint this, and more,’” Kennedy said. “Then her office sent back an email saying: ‘You've been approved.’”
Kennedy said she also received about $400 thanks to fundraising that was organized by Friends of the Peace Garden. She said this allowed her to take time off work to paint a “bigger and better” mural with more details — including a tribute to the three piping plover chicks that died at Montrose Beach .
“I will extend it over to the next section of wall,” she said. “I'm going to paint a little baby plover … and that's why I have the idea to do flowers for the babies that didn't make it.”
She said she hopes the mural re-evokes joy in the community.
“I want it to make people happy, which it seems like it really did the first time,” Kennedy said. “I want everybody to appreciate the plovers. I hope it can somehow indirectly help them, even just by creating awareness for the plovers.”
To the city, she said: “This makes people happy. Please let me make people happy.”
See more of Kennedy's art here .
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