Chicago murals: Little Village mural was in a ‘Chicago P.D.’ shootout scene

The painting was done by eight artists at Cermak Road and Fairfield Avenue and includes a number of giant oddball creatures.

By Sun-Times Staff Report

A mural at Cermak Road and Fairfield Avenue in Little Village was supposed to center on a food theme, being painted on an outside wall of a Mexican market and all.

But the organizer of the project, an artist who goes by Joey D., says, in the end, everyone really did their own thing.

Part of a mural at Cermak Road and Fairfield Avenue completed in 2020 by eight artists.

The result: a hodgepodge of giant, oddball creatures that look like something straight out of Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch.”

Another part of the Little Village mural that was led by the artist who goes by Joey D.

Joey D., who’s 46 and lives in the Chicago area, says he pulled together the project in 2020 with help from an artist who goes by Peas.

Part of the Little Village mural on a Mexican market, with the image of the character with antlers by the artist Joey D., and the image to the right by the artist who goes by Zwonzilla.

“He has a lot of walls that he rotates,” Joey D. says. “I have two kids and a full-time job at the time. I had down time and messaged him, ‘Do you have any free walls?’ ”

Peas suggested this spot, and Joey D. says he “buffed the whole thing and found friends, a group of artists, to fill it out.”

The other artists involved go by Zwonzilla, KOZMO, Bird Milk, FEDZ, VERLOE, Low Rawr and Rodger Da Dodger.

Everyone did the project on their own dime, though the artists were thrown a few bucks later when the NBC’s “Chicago P.D.” did a shootout scene that had the mural in the background, Joey D. says.

Peas — real name Luis Molina, who lives in Chicago Ridge — says the wall also had briefly been seen another time on “Chicago P.D.” before the mural was there.

TV shows using murals as a backdrop is nothing new. A mural at 1831 S. Racine Ave. from the 1970s had a brief appearance in the first episode of another NBC cop drama, “Hill Street Blues,” in the early 1980s.