The seawall at Loyola Park is plastered with murals, more than 160 of them, created as part of a lakefront arts festival in Rogers Park. But one piece is worth taking particular note of.
It features row upon row of painted yellow squares, each marked by a different year, from 1993 to 2023.
Each features a different image of the face of the same smiling man, who, as the years progress, changes ever so slightly.
The angle of his head or eyes differs in each frame. His hair changes, too, in later years some gray creeping in.
In the square for 2020, amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdowns, the man is shown with a shaggy beard and longer hair.
But always he’s smiling.
The mural is a love note of sorts from artist Gina Caruso to the man in the squares — Keith Lord, her husband.
It’s not only a tribute to him. It also plays off a tradition that sees Caruso draw something for Lord on a Post-It Note using Sharpies. Every day she does that, most days leaving it in the fridge, so he’ll be sure to find it. Each drawing bears a love note.
“I feel like every day — this may sound a little corny — every day is an opportunity to celebrate my relationship with Keith and also express myself creatively,” says Caruso, an urban planner with a visual arts background. “It’s my way to bring a little joy in a 3-by-3-inch piece of paper. It really focuses my heart.
“Also, I know it means so much for Keith,” she says. “It sets the tone for him for the day.”
They’ve been together since 2015 and had two wedding ceremonies: one in Anguilla in 2020 — performed at 65 feet underwater, fitting because they’re avid divers — and another at their Rogers Park home in 2021.
In her wedding vows, Caruso pledged to “do a note for him every day.”
One of them includes a drawing of a house key with a smiley face on it. Next to that, she wrote: “You are the KEY to my happiness.”
One has a balloon with a smiley face and the words, “My love has ballooned for you!”
Another shows a smiling tree and the words, “Thanks for ‘tree’ting me so wonderfully!”
Caruso did the Post-It Notes mural in June on the seawall at Loyola Park and titled it “Taking ‘Note’ of 30 Years.”
Beside celebrating their love, it also celebrates Lord’s involvement in creating the Artists of the Wall Festival that, since 1993, has seen new murals go up each year on the 600-foot seawall.
Caruso didn’t clue in Lord that she’d be making him the focal point of her mural.
He was blown away.
“I thought it was absolutely, unbelievably fantastic,” says Lord, who works in real estate. “She found a way to commemorate 30 years of the festival and ourselves and commitment to each other in a very fun and enlightening way.”
Of the daily notes and drawings his wife leaves him, Lord says: “It’s very nice to get up in the morning and know she’s thinking of me. It’s a great way to start a day to know you’re loved. And her creativity is mind-boggling — 365 days a year, she comes up with something creative and new each day.”
