Chicago murals: In Ryan Tova Katz's Lake View mural, the kids in the park really do play there
Look to the east from into Lake View’s Wendt Park, and youl see kids painting the moon and the night sky on a three-story building that's next to the park's playground. To the west, kids are painting the daytime sky on another three-story building across from the park.
Together, the murals make up Ryan Tova Katz's work titled “Raise the Day.”
And the kids running around the park just might be the real-life versions of the kids on the walls, a little older now, most of them students at nearby Nettelhorst School who Katz used as inspiration for the work.
Casey Hudetz was the catalyst for the murals at the park on West Roscoe Street between North Halsted Street and North Broadway.
"While standing in the park for endless hours as a parent of young kids, i thought it would be great to not only have a mural here, but we have this unique setup of mirrored canvases," Hudetz says.
He got in touch with Katz after admiring her mural of a child in Weisman Playground.
"He says, '“I want this park to have murals. This is where my kids grew up and their best friends. We want to feature them,' ” Katz, who lives in Roscoe Village and created the piece in 2022, remembers Hudetz telling her. “That’s one of my favorite things to do — paint children in the murals who live in that neighborhood. Every child in that mural plays in that park.”
Hudetz tracked down the owner of one of the buildings and got permission for Katz to paint it. Katz made arrangements with the property management company for the other building, for which she previously had done murals elsewhere.
Katz photographed kids who came to the park, capturing them with her camera while they drew and painted, using them as her inspiration.
Hudetz's son, then 5, was one of them. He's the little boy painting the moon.
Katz says she learned to drive a boom lift for the project, earning her license and navigating the lift around daycare programs, summer camps, kids and the park’s many tree branches.
As the art evolved, people offered money to help support the work. Katz says she got paid in small amounts through multiple GoFundMe accounts and other sources.
She says Hudetz “was, like, ‘Did I pay you in full?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but it’s fine. It was a lot of people who pulled that one together. That’s what’s so special about it.”
Katz focuses her art on kids.
"It’s my whole life right now," she says. "I’m a mom. It’s just the people who surround me. It’s the pure innocent joy of them at play, which is usually what I’m painting. Humanity can be very dark, and we have a lot of problems in our world.
“My artwork is supposed to spread love and joy. The easiest way to do that is large-scale flowers, colors and children smiling.”