A hand emerges from seemingly nowhere, unleashing a blue butterfly and what appears to be a stream of energy leading to several faces clustered among flowers, leaves and more butterflies.
A cloudy haze spirals off from there into the distance.
That’s what’s shown in a sprawling new mural on Chicago’s Near West Side, on the side of a commercial building at 452 N. Morgan St.
What informed the piece? That’s quite a different story.
The Los Angeles artist who completed it over the summer and goes by Ladie One says, “If you see the hand, it’s kind of releasing the butterfly, it turns into this whole beast of a butterfly.”
“Within the whole beast are these three girls I’m known for — it’s kind of my signature style, and they’re like alien girls from another realm that always come with different messages.”
“I channel them through visions and meditation, and they always come with these different uplifting and enlightening messages for I believe human kind.”
“It’s kind of like a puzzle that I have to decode. This is my process how I create these things.”
Her Chicago piece is titled “Metamorphosis,” and she says it “was all about transformation, and just releasing.”
“As I’m painting, there’s a certain frequency I tap into that dictates my motion, and the motion is like a dance and the dance is very spiritual — that’s how the painting looks the way it does because I’m dancing and looking all crazy when I’m painting,” she says.
“I’m channeling,” she says. “It’s like how the Indians would dance around a fire. When I’m painting I’m definitely in a trance. . . . It’s all about the energy I’m putting into the spray can and it comes out a certain way.”
Ladie One, who started out in graffiti, painted the mural as part of the Titan Walls festival in August.
It was a kind of homecoming as the artist was raised in the Chicago area until age 12, when she moved to Miami, then later to California.
“Full circle moment for me, coming from there and inviting my family to see me paint live at the wall — it was really cool to see that,” Ladie One says.
It was her first Chicago mural.
The other side of the same building was used as a giant canvas for the same murals festival a year earlier, with the Spanish artist Sabek creating a piece featuring bulls.
Sabek says his piece “tells a tale of harmony and rivalry.”
“Legend has it that long ago, two mighty bulls, symbolizing strength, resilience and the dualities of life, found themselves magically transported to the heart of the Windy City. Each bull, a guardian of its own territory, stood facing the other, their eyes locked in a silent understanding.”
Sabek adds, “And, of course, the whole idea was inspired by the Bulls basketball team.”
