ROGERS PARK — Artist Peter Hurley dipped his brush into gray paint Tuesday before smearing it onto the porous surface of a once-blank embankment wall on Glenwood Avenue.
By the end of the summer, the neighborhood's newest mural will be complete.
Hurley, of Lincoln Square, and his partner Scott Bullock, of New Orleans, were paid $17,000 to paint the mural, following this year's theme, "Movement and Stillness," as part of the 10-year Mile of Murals project.
"Even in stillness there's a pulsing energy, especially in human stillness," Hurley said, shaded from the noon sun by overhead branches as he put the initial touches on a dancing figure.
The mural, expected to be completed by Sept. 15, will feature a series of dancers — from ballerinas to break dancers — spanning a portion of the 350-foot stretch.
The mural would be the ninth installment of a project that began in 2007. Since then, long stretches of concrete walls along the Red Line and under train viaducts have been painted. Efforts include a portrait of President Barack Obama, a butterfly and images of Rogers Park history.
One of the more striking murals — painted in 2012 by Los Angeles artist Kalen Ockerman — is a series of neon-colored cyclops heads with whited-out eyes.
The project, funded by a special taxing district and the Rogers Park Business Alliance, should be completed by 2017. The project will result in 19 murals along 10 block-long walls, seven viaduct walls and two overpasses.
Hurley said the people of Rogers Park have been curious about the mural since he began working.
"We're blessed with this weather," he said. "Passersby are complimentary; The neighbors take real ownership of this thing."
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