The mural on North Milwaukee Avenue in West Town comes alive like a sunrise.
Tucked away and fronting a parking lot, the jagged stripes start with rich purple and black, transitioning to vibrant pink, deep orange-yellow, lemon yellow and then shades of powder blue, robins egg blue and brilliant blue, matching the color of a clear, crisp Chicago sky as it transitions throughout the early morning.
The one-story mural at 815 N. Milwaukee Ave., near North Ogden Avenue, stretches the length of the lot.
Denver artist Anthony Garcia Sr., who goes by the Instagram handle Birdseed Anthony, painted the mural. Along with creating his own art, he is founder and executive director of Birdseed Collective, which seeks to help low-income Denver communities with health, wellness and arts classes for youth and adults.
Garcia’s style using linear color gradients references the sarape, a Chicano Southwest Mexican-style blanket, he says.
“There’s a really large Chicano Mexican presence in Chicago, so I felt like it would fit perfectly with what I do,” he says.
The 2023 mural came about after Garcia visited Chicago to see a group show featuring one of his good friends, he says. There he met Sarah Dulkin, director of Chicago Truborn art gallery, also in West Town. They decided to work together on a Chicago project and began sending concepts back and forth.
Eventually Garcia spent two weeks painting the blanket, visiting friends and meeting Chicago artists whom he had long admired, he says. He even got a tattoo.
“I really tried to embrace the community and the people,” he says. “I knew some artists that were out there through Instagram or social media, and this gave me the chance to really meet these people in person,” especially those based in Pilsen.
He returned home with a small, abstract, indigenous-style arrow tattoo under his chin from Chicago artist Codak Smith. Garcia says, he still keeps in touch with the new friends he met here.
“We always meet each other in other parts of the world, which is really nice,” Garcia says. “I really got connected with those artists while I was out there and made lifetime friendships with them.”
Garcia says he especially appreciated Chicago’s art scene — “the impact that it’s made on the culture and community” and how “each pocket has a very diverse art scene by itself.”
He says he’ll be back.
“It’s a lot bigger than Denver, but there’s still very tightly knit communities in all these different areas. Even though it’s a huge city, you still feel like you’re a part of community wherever you go.”