Chicago murals: Brookfield artist employs unique spray can technique to create ethereal beasts

A buffalo-type creature with a teal translucent head and wavy purple horns appears to be floating inside a panel along the railroad embankment on Hubbard Street in West Town

Nearby, in a self-portrait under a viaduct at West Chicago Avenue and North Lessing Street, Shugailo’s one green eye and wavy pink hair peek out from behind the face of her cat, who’s illustrated in shades of black, glowing aqua green and deep purple.

“My work looks like paper cutouts, like a paper sculpture or something,” says Shugailo, a lifelong Brookfield resident. “I layer all these transparencies, and it’s become my signature. Not many people do it. It was always important to me to stand out and have a unique style.”

Shugailo says she learned her techniques from street graffiti artists, and the one she uses the most is called a flare.

“When I learned it, I overdid it like crazy,” she says. “But it’s so fun. You angle the can and sort of dust the wall.”

Shugailo starts her murals by painting her images first in solid colors. Then she uses her flare technique to add layers on top of them until she achieves the look and feel that she seeks.

“It’s very meditative and free flowing, and I lose myself in it,” she says.

Natalie Clare Shugailo says she learned some of her techniques from graffiti artists.

As for her color palate, Shugailo says she’s always been drawn to bold colors and “bright, happy things.” The brilliant hues and flare technique create a dreamy reality that draws smiles and brings joy to people passing by, she says.

Sara Dulkin is owner of Chicago Truborn gallery at 1741 W. Chicago Avenue in West Town, where Shugailo has shown her work for more than a decade. She calls Sugalo “one of the top female street artists in Chicago.”

“She has a style that’s very specific and unique to her. It’s very easy to spot her work,” Dulkin says. She includes “a lot of fantastical creatures that she’s made up herself.”

A mural that covers one of Truborn’s outside walls reflects Shugailo’s Ukranian heritage. She painted it about the time Russia invaded that nation.

Artist Natalie Clare Shugailo’s self-portrait is under a viaduct at West Chicago Avenue and North Lessing Street in West Town.

But it’s the self-portrait with the cat that Shugailo says illustrates calmness and represents what home means to her.

“Since I was 8 years old, I said, I’m going to grow up and be an artist,” she says. “You’re not sure about a lot of things in life, but it’s always been a surety for me,”