In Rogers Park, fish mural has taken on a deeper meaning for artist

Against a background of dark blue lake water, you see brightly colored fish of various shapes and sizes — silver, gold, slender, round, scaly, smooth. The fish are flanked by streaks of an aquatic rainbow.

Amanda Paulson painted the mural, titled “A Tribute to the Fish of Lake Michigan,” eight years ago after winning a contest put on by Rogers Park residents. It was meant only to be a pretty and educational scene of the lake and its life. But, for Paulson, the mural has taken on new meaning after the sudden deaths of her two brothers.

“How would I have known at the time that I was creating a memorial for my brothers?” says Paulson, 33.

The mural is one of the more recognizable artwork in an area exploding with public art. It has adorned the north-facing wall of the CTA L underpass on West Pratt Boulevard since its completion in 2011, after Paulson’s entry was picked from among dozens as one of 12 murals to go up that year in underpasses in the Far North Side neighborhood.

The underpass mural project was one of the first projects proposed under then-Ald. Joe Moore’s participatory budgeting initiative, which lets 49th Ward residents vote on ways to spend a portion of the ward’s budget.

It was also the first mural for Paulson, who’d been trying to break into the fine arts world. Ever since the fish mural, she’s been doing murals for hire for indoor spaces such as corporate offices and chalk menus at restaurants.

Michael McDevitt / Sun-Times

Paulson, who grew up in Barrington and lives in Ravenswood, says her fish design was inspired by Rogers Park’s access to the lake. She wanted those who see the mural to be reminded not to take the lake for granted as a natural resource.

Many of the fish she painted are native to the lake. The images include carp, salmon, bass, trout, muskie, crappie, perch, smelt and pike. A few alewives also dot the depths of the mural.

Paulson says her dad, a seasoned fisherman, helped select the fish to include and made sure they had the right characteristics.

Eight years later, vines have crept across one corner of the mural’s billboard panels. But the painting itself remains vibrant — doing it in panels helped ensure that pieces of the mural wouldn’t crack, chip or crumble with wear, unlike many nearby pieces that were painted on bare concrete.

Now, looking at the mural makes Paulson think of her two brothers, also avid fishermen, who died within months of each other about a year and a half ago.

Matt Paulson was an electrician. He was 29 when a vehicle hit him as he was working on roadside repairs in November 2017.

Paulson says her youngest brother Lee Paulson was 26 when he died four months later from a fentanyl overdose.

She says her brothers and their dad spent countless hours fishing together.

“The fishing unit was my brothers and my dad,” she says. “And if the girls went, like me and my mom, it was a different thing.

“When someone dies and you memorialize them . . . you have to choose something to represent them. You start kind of assigning them icons in your head.”

Paulson hasn’t painted fish since that mural. But she says she might do so again. She also wants to get a tattoo of a fishing lure with two hooks — one for each brother.

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