Pilsen artist Jenny Vyas has painted murals all over the world. But her West Ridge mural titled “Glow,” of a classical Kathak dancer bursting with color, is one of her favorites.
Located on the southeast corner of North Rockwell Street and West Devon Avenue, in the heart of Chicago’s Indian community, the dancer’s arms and skirts seem to burst from the wall as she steps through the traditional dance.
Adding to the flow of movement, she is surrounded by bursts of color representing Holi, the ancient Hindu festival that celebrates the “arrival of spring and the blossoming of love as the sun sets on another winter,” reads the description that Vyas wrote on a plaque next to the mural. Vyas painted it in 2019.
The dancer is telling the story through the classical Kathak dance.
“I love the dance itself, it’s a very graceful symbol,” Vyas says. “It’s a very simple dance. It reminds me of ballet, the way it moves.”
The mural also celebrates the community and Hindu culture, and how Holi is a universal festival, she says.
“We come together and we put color on each other, strangers, anybody on the streets,” Vyas says. In India, “when you’re walking around on this day you have to keep a watch because someone’s going to pop out and throw color on you.”
The woman dancing with the bright smile is inspired by a Canadian dancer whose photo Vyas found, she says. She loved “the pose, the humility in it, the grace.”
It turned out that Vyas’ cousin, who also lives in Canada, told a dancer friend that the mural Vyas painted looked like her. They quickly put together that the photo Vyas found was indeed this friend of her cousin.
The dancer reached out and “it turned into a lovely little friendship,” Vyas says. The woman used an image of the mural in one of her shows and on her flyers. They hoped to do a collaboration, but found it was difficult to apply for arts grants in Canada, as preference was given to those with Canadian citizenship..
Vyas’ outdoor murals can be found around Chicago, though she doesn’t have any new ones in the pipeline right now, she says. She recently painted two murals at an Indian restaurant in the West Loop and is working on several studio commissions for private clients.
She also hopes to paint more with children. One of her murals, titled “How will you rise?” at North Clifton Avenue and North Broadway in Uptown, was painted near the Hannah and Sylvia family shelters run by Cornerstone Community Outreach. The mothers and children living there at the time worked with her to paint the mural. If you look closely at it, you can see a small handprint left by one of the kids.
“When I was looking away, he put his hand there, and I just left it,” she says.