The little hoofed creature playing an instrument in a sprawling new mural on the Near West Side is a faun — a mythological part-man and part-goat.
He’ll get your attention in the mural that Spanish artist Lula Goce painted in August on a commercial building at Ashland Avenue and Hubbard Street. But what Goce really wants people to pay attention to is the woman upon whose fingertips he’s perched.
“She stood as the mother of this colorful tapestry, exuding an aura of divine empowerment,” Goce says. “The woman’s regal presence commanded attention, surrounded by swirling vines, dancing trees and flowing rivers that depicted the dynamic energy of the natural world she had brought to life.”
“Her gaze was both nurturing and commanding, reflecting the dual role of a creator and protector, as if she held the key to maintaining the delicate balance of the ecosystem she had orchestrated,” Goce says. “The faun in her hand symbolized the harmony between humanity and the animal kingdom — a benevolent gesture towards the creatures that shared the canvas of existence in this vibrant masterpiece.”
The piece was done for Chicago’s annual Titan Walls mural festival.
Also as part of that, Gus Cutty, an artist from Asheville, North Carolina, painted another mural just to the east on the same wall.
Muros, the Chicago company behind Titan Walls, also hires muralists around the country for corporate work.
“They hired me in 2021 to paint two murals in Georgia for Bose to promote the NFL draft,” Cutty says. “One of the portraits was of Justin Fields when he got drafted to the Bears.
“I saw they were throwing Titan Walls again and, Chicago being my favorite American city, went through their application process online and was chosen as one of the featured artists in 2023.”
Cutty says his designs start “with building a simple architecture and color scheme and building from there. I look for visual signifiers of a city or neighborhood to help guide my work. One of the things I love about Chicago is the history and industrial feel of old steel in the bridges and underpasses throughout the city. That’s why I began with a rusty orange palette and steel rivet elements in sections.
“Another thing you see everywhere you go is bullhorns. I like to balance the clean graphic shapes and color blocks in my work with realistic elements. So a bullhorn was perfect in providing texture and big sweeping curves to the piece.
“Also, in my research, I learned that Chicago is one of the only cities that has its own flower, the chrysanthemum, which added more textures and softness to the piece.”
