A car crashed into a wall in Lyons, and that’s how this mural got its ‘phoenix rising’

Southwest Side artist Penny Burns painted this mural in Lyons. (Provided)

A car made a big impact on a mural in Lyons in 2021.

Someone driving on Ogden Avenue in the southwest suburb flew off the road and into Waterworks Pizzeria & Tavern, injuring people working there and destroying part of a brick wall — and a mural on that wall that artist Penny Burns had created the previous year.

This happened not long after a fire damaged part of the building’s interior.

The brick wall eventually was rebuilt. And last fall Burns restored her creation. She also added something.

“We decided to paint the phoenix rising, as it seemed appropriate,” Burns wrote on Facebook, referring to the mythical bird said to have risen, reborn, from the ashes.

Penny Burns at work on her Lyons mural. (Mike Vasquez)

Her phoenix, though, is “rising from the Des Plaines River,” nearby.

In the original version, which Burns painted in 2020, there was an oldtime lamppost where the phoenix is now.

“It seemed like a nice ending to the story of what happened,” Burns, who lives on the Southwest Side, says of the rising bird.

Burns had been working with bars in the city and suburbs including Summit, Bridgeview and Justice to put on art shows at the businesses.

“We make it a fun party, with a theme,” says Burns, who also does smaller landscape paintings on canvas. “The most recent was ‘The Wicked Martini Art Festival.’ ”

Waterworks owner Dawn Paganelli met her through the art shows and asked, “Can you do a mural on my building?”

The wall that was struck by a car in 2021. (John Ragan)

“I said, ‘Absolutely,’ ” Burns says. “She didn’t need to see any sketches.”

She asked that Burns include images in the mural of the restaurant, the Des Plaines River and the Hofmann Tower, a Lyons landmark built in 1908 “in a style fashioned after European castles.”

Paganelli says of Burns, “I think she’s a beautiful artist, and I’m happy how it all came together.”

Burns says her method was simple: “It’s all brush. No sketches. No pre-sketches.”

Penny Burns’ mural before it was damaged by a car. (Provided)

Burns, who in high school was a concert cellist, says of her artwork: “I have done this sort of thing since I was a toddler. It’s a part of me. It’s who I am. It’s what I am. It’s like breathing.”

Her creations, she says, are about “bringing beauty and uplifting vibes to people.”

Click on the map below for a selection of Chicago-area murals