Murals

Louise (Ouizi) Jones’ Mural on the Rockford Trust Building

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(Photo by Helen Karakoudas)

(Photo by Helen Karakoudas)

Artist: Detroit artist Louise Jones, known as Ouizi.

Title: Unknown

Date: Created in 2023 as part of CRE8IV transformational art.

Location: Rockford Trust Building located at 202 W State St, Rockford, IL 61101

Description: Bold native flowers and butterflies.

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 9/20/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Karakoudas, Helen. “Rockford’s Mural Initiative Is Getting Bigger And Smaller At The Same Time This Year.” Rock River Current. June 1st, 2023. Web article accessed 9/20/2023: https://www.rockrivercurrent.com/2023/05/31/rockfords-mural-initiative-is-getting-bigger-and-smaller-at-the-same-time-this-year/

Libbie and Lisa Frost’s Mural in Rockton, IL

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Artists: Libbie and Lisa Frost

Title: Unknown

Date: Created in 2021 as part of CRE8IV transformational art.

Location: Rockton Food & Spirits located at 121 W. Main St., Rockton, IL

Description: Inspired by fields of wild flowers that grow in the summer, the mural is intended to spark joy and bring smiles.

Source: Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 9/20/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/

Libbie and Lisa Frost’s Mural under Jefferson St. Bridge

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Artists: Libbie and Lisa Frost

Title: Unknown

Date: Created in 2019 as part of CRE8IV transformational art.

Location: 299 N. Madison Street

Source: Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 9/20/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/

Lisa Frost’s “Heart of the River” Mural

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Photo by Kevin Haas

Photo by Kevin Haas

Artist:  Lisa Frost

Title: Heart of the River

Date Created: CRE8IV 2023

Location: “Heart of the River” is located on the building of Mabel’s Jackpot, 5727 N. Second St.

Description:  A new mural filled with custom colors aims to spark joy by evoking the energy and athleticism of a Ski Broncs water ski show. The mural fills the south-facing wall of Mabel’s Jackpot, 5727 N. Second St., and depicts two slalom skiers winding around a ramp on the Rock River at sunset. “If you’re sitting at a Ski Broncs show, this is what you would see,” said Lisa Frost, the artist who created the mural. She titled the mural “Heart of the River,” paying homage to both its location in the City with a Heart and its hometown ski show team. “I’m not a water skier, but I can feel it when I watch you all,” Frost told Ski Broncs members Friday morning at a ceremony celebrating the mural’s completion. “That feeling of freedom, air and athleticism and pageantry and just feeling alive.” (Haas.)

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 9/20/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Haas, Kevin. “Heart Of The River’: New Mural Honors Ski Broncs, Aims To Spark Joy In Loves Park.” Rock River Current. Website accessed 8/7/2023.  https://www.rockrivercurrent.com/2023/08/04/heart-of-the-river-new-mural-honors-ski-broncs-aims-to-spark-joy-in-loves-park/

Anthony Lewellen’s Auburn Street Retaining Wall Mural

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Artist: Anthony Lewellen

Date: Created as part of the 2023 CRE8IV transformational art program.

Location: near 4802 Auburn St, Rockford, IL 61101.

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 9/20/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Artist’s Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/antckone/

Lincoln Middle School’s Golden-Crowned Kinglet Mural

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Artists: Lincoln Middle School students

Title: Unknown

Location: Corner of 9th and State St. near 1230 E State St, Rockford, IL 61104

Date: 2019

Description: Rockford Lincoln Middle School students painted a mural on the wall behind the Revell Avenue Strong House! They chose the Golden-crowned kinglet as the bird they wanted to feature on their mural. Thanks to their teacher, Mrs. Jillian Myers, the United Way of Rock River Valley, and SwedishAmerican for collaborating on this mural.

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 8/3/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Audubon Mural Projects. Website accessed 8/30/2023: https://www.sinnissippiaudubon.org/audubon-mural-project/?_gl=1*1wvkrks*_ga*MTEyMjc3ODU2Ni4xNjkzNDEwMTE4*_ga_X2XNL2MWTT*MTY5MzQxMDExNy4xLjAuMTY5MzQxMDEyNy41MC4wLjA.

Libbie Frost’s State Street Bridge Mural

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Artist: Libbie Frost

Title: Unknown

Location: On the north east side of State Street Bridge, near 114 N. Water Street, Rockford, IL 61107

Date: 2018

Description: This was a 2018 mural that features butterflies, bright blue and the name Rockford. Please park and look for this mural on the bridge.

Newspaper article written by Georgette Braun (source available below):

“Last summer, next to the wall of a well-traveled downtown bridge, strangers struck up conversations with Libbie Frost.

“Maybe this will keep the crime away,” one man told her as she painted a colorful mural on the northeast side of the State Street bridge at the Rock River.

“We really needed this here,” another person told her about the design featuring flower and butterfly images and the word “Rockford” painted in black on a bright blue background.

And she conversed in Spanish more than a few times with two men who watched her paint the 30-foot-long mural while they were taking a lunch break from work.

“I felt enlivened to use my language skills meaningfully in the real word,” Frost, 18, said in an email interview with the Register Star.

Frost raised about $500 through GoFundMe and Facebook to buy paints, brushes, primer and buckets to create the mural.

Frost in May was honored with the Register Star’s Young American Award for outstanding youth, and was recognized as president of her class and being captain of the school swim team. She graduated this year from Boylan Catholic High School and plans to attend the University of Notre Dame in the fall. She said in an essay as part of her application to the university that she was “greatly humbled by the positive feedback I received from excited citizens” about her mural. She plans to study management consulting and industrial design.

The mural’s vibrant colors represent optimism, Frost said. The purple coneflowers are a nod to the city’s symbolic flower. The monarch butterflies represent “transformation into something greater — hope,” she told the Register Star.

“People love the bright colors, the ways in which it resembles our city, the location by the City Market, how it is visible from the river/bridges and how it is a great photo destination,” Frost said.

“I love that Rockford is now working to enhance the amount of its murals,” she said. She and her mother, Lisa Frost, led a team that painted murals in May on 30 pillars under the Jefferson Street Bridge as one of eight new mural projects downtown. “Murals can display city culture, communicate message and bring color to dull areas,” she said.

“The wall on the side of the bridge is no longer a place of despair, but rather a place of pride.”

Name: Libbie Frost

Age: 18

City of residence: Rockford

School/college: 2019 Boylan Catholic High School graduate; University of Notre Dame Class of 2023

Quote: “The wall on the side of the bridge is no longer a place of despair, but rather a place of pride.”

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 8/3/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Braun, Georgette. “Young painter says mural on Rockford bridge wall a ‘place of pride.” Rockford Register Star. June 29, 2019. Web article accessed 9/5/2023:  https://www.rrstar.com/story/news/local/2019/06/29/young-painter-says-mural-on/4799779007/

Kelsey Montague’s “Treehouse” Mural

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Artist: Kelsey Montague

Title: Rockford Treehouse

Location: 333 E State St, Rockford, IL 61104

When: Created in 2018 as part of CRE8IV transformational art.

Description: ” When the Rockford Visitors Bureau was renovating a sizable public park, they wanted a large, playful mural. Kelsey and Courtney liked this idea. According to Kelsey, “I always treasure when we get to do large murals and when we have clients that let us have free-reign over a wall. I have always wanted to live in a tree house, so it was cool to create this whimsical scene. This one is the perfect size for a gnome. I honestly can imagine him coming and going from that tree house every day” (Raven.)

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 8/3/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Raven, Robin. “10 Unforgettable Murals: See Kelsey Montague’s Bigger-Than-Life Artwork Throughout The US.” 2019.   Article accessed 8/30/2023: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinraven/2019/08/30/10-unforgettable-murals-see-kelsey-montagues-bigger-than-life-artwork-throughout-the-us/?sh=1f62ec1444b2

Justin Suarez’s Northern Goshawk Mural

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Above Photo: Bryan Holliday

Artist: Justin Suarez

Title: Northern Goshawk

Location: 1631 Rural Street, Rockford, IL

When: Created in 2021 as part of CRE8IV transformational art.

Description: A mural by artist Justin Suarez depicts a Northern Goshawk, a powerful raptor of northern woodlands. The goshawk may lose 61 percent of its summer habitat with 3℃ of warming. Keeping warming to 1.5℃ would keep losses to 25 percent.  (Cosier.)

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 8/3/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Cosier, Susan. “The Audubon Mural Project Takes Flight in Rockford, Illinois.” Audubon Magazine. Online article accessed 8/30/2023: https://www.audubon.org/news/the-audubon-mural-project-takes-flight-rockford-illinois
  3. Audubon Mural Projects. Website accessed 8/30/2023: https://www.sinnissippiaudubon.org/audubon-mural-project/?_gl=1*1wvkrks*_ga*MTEyMjc3ODU2Ni4xNjkzNDEwMTE4*_ga_X2XNL2MWTT*MTY5MzQxMDExNy4xLjAuMTY5MzQxMDEyNy41MC4wLjA.

Justin Suarez’s “Dodge” and “Chase” Mural

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Above Photo: Bryan Holliday

Artist: Justin Suarez

Title: “Dodge” and “Chase”

Location: 1238 E. State St., Rockford, IL

When: Created in 2021 as part of CRE8IV transformational art.

Description: The two main portions of this mural are designed to tell a story, reflecting on the relationships between predatory and prey species, and highlighting local wildlife which have been suffering from the effects of climate change, including Blackburnian Warbler, Canada Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Henslow’s Sparrow, Hermit Thrush, House Finch, Scarlet Tanager, Tennessee Warbler, and Veery.

“Dodge” features a depiction of a Peregrine Falcon diving into a group of songbirds, in a failed attempt to snatch one of them within it’s powerful talons. While the tenacious falcon greatly overpowers them; the songbirds are fast, and adept at scattering and escaping with their lives.

“Chase” shows a very converse scene, in which the songbirds have joined together to chase the falcon away from the area that they call home. Though tiny and frail, their many beaks together can cause enough of an annoyance to force the falcon to search elsewhere for food.

Depending on how these two murals are viewed, they can tell their own stand alone story, or they can be viewed as a piece of sequential art. In this way, “Chase” can be seen as the second act of the story, in which the songbirds are retaliating against the falcon (Cosier.)

Sources:

  1. Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Rockford Public Art Trail.” Website Accessed 8/3/2023. https://www.gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art-trail/
  2. Cosier, Susan. “The Audubon Mural Project Takes Flight in Rockford, Illinois.” Audubon Magazine. Online article accessed 8/30/2023: https://www.audubon.org/news/the-audubon-mural-project-takes-flight-rockford-illinois
  3. Audubon Mural Projects. Website accessed 8/30/2023: https://www.sinnissippiaudubon.org/audubon-mural-project/?_gl=1*1wvkrks*_ga*MTEyMjc3ODU2Ni4xNjkzNDEwMTE4*_ga_X2XNL2MWTT*MTY5MzQxMDExNy4xLjAuMTY5MzQxMDEyNy41MC4wLjA.