Graffiti News

Radiating Hope puts everyday care beside the Red Line

Anthony Lewellen’s mural Radiating Hope portrays neighbors supporting one another on the back wall of Nourishing Hope’s building at 3945 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood. According to the Chicago Sun-Times report published September 25, 2026, Lewellen painted the work the previous summer. The wall stands just east of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Sheridan Red Line stop, with trains passing directly opposite the painting.

The composition measures 80 feet across and 26 feet high. People clasp hands, pass groceries and sit around a circular table. Behind those encounters, overlapping circles in different colors establish a recurring visual rhythm. The Sun-Times identifies circles within circles as a signature of Lewellen’s work. He made the entire three-story painting with spray paint.

For people following murals through a neighborhood, the relationship between subject and site provides a useful starting point. Sharing food appears on the wall of an organization that distributes it. The railway places that image beside an ordinary journey through the city, giving riders another way to encounter the building and its purpose.

Nourishing Hope’s services give the imagery its local meaning

The mural’s scenes reflect the work of Nourishing Hope, which supplies food, mental health support and social services. The Sun-Times reports that the organization began in 1970 as The People’s Pantry of Lake View. It employs more than 60 people and works with 7,000 volunteers. Sheridan Market opened at the Sheridan Road location in 2016, offering fresh food and social services.

Mitzi Baum, the organization’s chief executive officer, connected the painting with those activities in her comments to the newspaper. Her interest in commissioning a mural developed while she walked through neighborhoods during the pandemic, photographed public art and shared the photographs on Instagram. Looking at other walls helped her recognize the possibilities of the one at Sheridan Market.

That origin matters when reading the finished work. The figures carrying groceries and gathering at a table give the painting a specific relationship to the building. A viewer can begin with those concrete actions, then consider how the surrounding circles link separate encounters into one composition. The organization’s identity is present in both the subject matter and its logo.

Painting in Lake View brought Lewellen back to childhood memories

The commission returned Lewellen, also known by his graffiti name Antck, to a neighborhood where he grew up. He told the Sun-Times that his childhood home was near West Addison and North Fremont streets. He remembered the Sheridan Road building when it contained a hip-hop shoe store, and recalled a New York artist painting the back wall during that period.

While he worked on Radiating Hope, passing trains brought back the sounds of childhood. His account gives the railway a second role in the story: it forms part of the artist’s memory as well as the mural’s physical surroundings. The homecoming described in the newspaper rests on those particular connections to the neighborhood.

For mural watchers, that history adds another layer to the location. Looking at the painted wall alongside the railway makes it possible to connect the work’s setting with Lewellen’s account of making it. The building, the trains and the artist’s recollections belong to the same site, even as the mural addresses the organization occupying the building.

The logo and circular forms offer a closer way to look

The mural’s circular design required a careful adjustment around the Nourishing Hope logo. Lewellen told the Sun-Times that his biggest challenge was making the logo appear centered within a radial form aligned with the O in Hope. Because that letter does not occupy the middle of the word, he had to position the lettering and radial shape to create the intended balance.

That detail rewards attention beyond the first impression of bright color. The painted people, round table, background circles and lettering provide several points of comparison within the same wall. Chicago’s 46th Ward alderperson Angela Clay also connected the imagery with the organization’s willingness to serve whoever arrives seeking help.

To locate the work, use 3945 N. Sheridan Road and look for the building’s rear wall east of Sheridan station. The address identifies the building; the painted surface faces the railway across the way. Let the conditions on site determine a suitable place to stop and look. You can explore the area’s mural locations on the Wallscape map.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times