Everett Reynolds aspired to be a forensic pathologist — a doctor that studies the causes of death. While in college, he was a chemistry major headed that direction.
But he’s since veered about as far from that path as you can get: He’s become an artist creating big, colorful and dynamic murals in Chicago and the suburbs.
Reynolds, who will be 29 in January, can appreciate the irony of such a dramatic life shift.
“For sure, and it started from me creating life and becoming a dad and all of that, so it’s really cool,” he says.
Born in Belize in Central America, he moved to the Chicago area at 12 and was raised in Lake County, including Waukegan and Zion.
Art was really a late-in-life endeavor, he says.
“I was a pre-med student, and art wasn’t necessarily my main goal. I’m not going to lie,” Reynolds says.
But then, “a lot of things” started happening in 2015, including his partner becoming pregnant.
“I was becoming a dad. I was still in school. I had to figure out what I really wanted to do.”
Now living on Chicago’s North Side, Reynolds says, “I feel everyone has that point; it’s like a whirlwind. And from there you really pick a destination and life really changes.”
As things felt a little “out of control,” he took up painting.
“When I first started, it was just an outlet for me to express my feelings, something for me to control, something to keep me calm.”
But it became so much more, Reynolds says. “I was like, this is incredible, I love it.”
“I was painting on canvas at first,” he says. “Then 2017, I had an idea to paint a mural, but I didn’t get to it until maybe like a year and a half after that.”
That first public mural, titled “Dream Big,” was done in Waukegan and featured an astronaut boy and a girl reading “The Martian Chronicles,” by Waukegan native Ray Bradbury.
“The theme goes hand-in-hand with the title,” Reynolds says. “It was a mural created to represent and reflect the community of Waukegan, to inspire the people to follow their dream no matter the challenges and lack of access to resources they may have.”
Art is no longer simply an outlet for Reynolds, who says it’s about “me communicating” and “creating relationships” and “a legacy for me and my family.”
“The reason I still do it is I still have that drive; it’s just not going away. I love learning. There’s always a challenge you have to figure out.”
Recently, Reynolds created a mural in Waukegan featuring a girl surrounded by flowers on the side of a market, and another mural in a viaduct on the edge of Pilsen featuring a young woman being lifted into the air by balloons.
Reynolds says painting isn’t the only artwork he’s passionate about.
“Murals are about 50% of what I do. I also tattoo,” Reynolds says, with his Zenith Creative Studio, 3834 W. Berteau Ave., doubling as a tattoo parlor and fine arts space that he co-owns with his brother, Aaron Rhaburn.
A signature aspect of many of his murals is they include images of regular folks, often people of color.
“I really wanted to paint regular people to be relatable,” he says. “I want people to look at my artwork and be able to connect with it and see themselves.”
