{"id":168653,"date":"2025-09-20T00:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T00:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/168653\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T00:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T00:03:09","slug":"chicago-murals-brookfield-artist-employs-unique-spray-can-technique-to-create-ethereal-beasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/168653\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago murals: Brookfield artist employs unique spray can technique to create ethereal beasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natalie Clare Shugailo\u2019s murals boast a surreal, mystic quality.<\/p>\n

Bubbly, ethereal, turquoise wolves with glowing gold eyes stare out from a garage at 2500 W. Polk St. in the Near West Side.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Nearby, in a self-portrait under a viaduct at West Chicago Avenue and North Lessing Street, Shugailo\u2019s one green eye and wavy pink hair peek out from behind the face of her cat, who\u2019s illustrated in shades of black, glowing aqua green and deep purple.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy work looks like paper cutouts, like a paper sculpture or something,\u201d says Shugailo, a lifelong Brookfield resident. \u201cI layer all these transparencies, and it\u2019s become my signature. Not many people do it. It was always important to me to stand out and have a unique style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shugailo says she learned her techniques from street graffiti artists, and the one she uses the most is called a flare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I learned it, I overdid it like crazy,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it\u2019s so fun. You angle the can and sort of dust the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very meditative and free flowing, and I lose myself in it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\"Natalie<\/p>\n

Natalie Clare Shugailo says she learned some of her techniques from graffiti artists.<\/p>\n

As for her color palate, Shugailo says she\u2019s always been drawn to bold colors and \u201cbright, happy things.\u201d The brilliant hues and flare technique create a dreamy reality that draws smiles and brings joy to people passing by, she says.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cone of the top female street artists in Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a style that\u2019s very specific and unique to her. It\u2019s very easy to spot her work,\u201d Dulkin says. She includes \u201ca lot of fantastical creatures that she\u2019s made up herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mural that covers one of Truborn\u2019s outside walls reflects Shugailo\u2019s Ukranian heritage. She painted it about the time Russia invaded that nation.<\/p>\n

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\"Artist<\/p>\n

Artist Natalie Clare Shugailo\u2019s self-portrait is under a viaduct at West Chicago Avenue and North Lessing Street in West Town.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the self-portrait with the cat that Shugailo says illustrates calmness and represents what home means to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was 8 years old, I said, I\u2019m going to grow up and be an artist,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019re not sure about a lot of things in life, but it\u2019s always been a surety for me,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Natalie Clare Shugailo\u2019s murals boast a surreal, mystic quality. Bubbly, ethereal, turquoise wolves with glowing gold eyes stare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-168653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}