- Credibility:
LOGAN SQUARE — Eduardo Vea Keating is having some fun with all of the snow that has so many of us holed up in our homes.
The 43-year-old artist is responsible for the skyline snow mural that popped up on the side of the corner store at Sawyer and Fullerton avenues on Sunday afternoon.
He said it took him about an hour to make, and, unlike a painted mural, required zero tools.
“There’s not much science behind it. … You have to find a good surface for the snow to stick. It’s just my bare hands and gloves,” Keating said.
As of Monday afternoon, the mural had already mostly melted away, but that doesn’t bother Keating, who said he’s drawn to how temporary it was.
“You put some effort into doing it, you work on it for a little bit, you take a couple pictures, and then you move into the next thing,” he said. “That’s usually how life is. It’s full of moments. Some are better and some are worse, but life goes on.”
Sunday’s mural was Keating’s third such creation in Logan Square after having moved to the neighborhood a few months ago.
Keating estimates he’s made dozens of snow murals over the course of the eight years he’s lived in Chicago, several of them in Pilsen and Printers Row, where he lived before Logan Square.
“I just go for a walk and if I see a nice wall, I start playing with the snow,” Keating said.
Many of the murals are of simple phrases like “Don’t complain” or “It’s a matter of time.” Typically, the murals only last a day or so, depending on the temperature. The colder the temperature, the longer it’ll last, Keating said.
Originally from Spain, Keating said he loves snow and thinks of Chicago as “paradise” when it gets as much as snow as it has in the past couple of weeks.
Keating first landed on the idea of making snow murals about a decade ago at a ski resort in Spain. He said it had snowed so much there that all he could do was take a walk, which is when he started throwing snow balls at a wall.
“It got stuck, and I said, hmm, this is something. The day after, I went back to that same spot, I started drawing with the snow, as if were paint,” Keating said.
Keating eventually brought the idea to the advertising agency where he works as a copywriter. He said his campaign on snow murals for a Mexico tourism board won several awards.
“I just want people to smile and to think that no matter the weather, tomorrow is going to be a good day. [The art] will melt. Everything will pass. Just enjoy what you have around you and try to say positive,” he said.
Those who didn’t catch Keating’s Logan Square murals before they melted needn’t worry: Keating said there’s a good chance he’ll be making more murals in the coming weeks as snow continues to dump on Chicago — but he might need a new pair of gloves.
“I was joking the other day about posting on Instagram, looking for a glove sponsor,” he said with a laugh.
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