Hologram street signs that only shimmer when a sensor detects a nearby vehicle or pedestrian. Buildings disappear behind blankets of greenery growing on walls. Camera-toting dogs to patrol for police or sniff out fires for firemen.
All these images are part of Paul Barker’s vision of the future.
Barker, an Evanston resident and nationally renowned muralist, unveiled a 17-foot-long mural he donated to Haven Middle School Thursday night to about a dozen staff members and parents. “Evanston 2020” illustrates what Barker hopes the corner of Custer Avenue and Main Street will look like in a more eco-friendly time, the year 2020.
“The punch line to the mural is that nothing in here is futuristic,” Barker said. “Everything exists today somewhere or is for sale somewhere or is just conventional technology that is being re-purposed.”
The artist pointed to an orange car zooming underneath El tracks in the center of the mural and explained it’s a vehicle that runs on compressed air currently being manufactured in France. An elderly couple lounge on a bench by a small brook representing a “pocket park,” a Japanese effort to squeeze nature into tiny spaces wherever possible.
Barker said all the mural’s subjects are riding bikes, driving eco-friendly cars or walking because the current surge in technology will eventually result in a return to the basics.
The mural spent five months on the wall in Lupita’s, a Mexican restaurant on the illustrated corner. Now Barker wants to share this green perspective permanently with the students at Haven.
“My target audience is not people who go to Mexican restaurants,” he said. “It’s not even adults. My target audience is munchkins and anyone young enough that they will have an influence when they start voting 10 years down the road.”
Barker, who has painted so many murals he’s “running out of room on the computer for the photographs,” illustrated the mural during the two-day Custer’s Last Stand fair in June.
After an employee at Lupita’s ran out and asked to house the mural for a while, Haven art teacher Denise Taylor struck up a casual conversation with the artist about the work. He immediately offered her the mural as a donation.
“My jaw dropped,” Taylor said. “I got the goose bumps.”
Barker spent the day at Haven to talk with students about the piece and sustainability. Taylor said the one-on-one attention helped kids learn more about art in general.
“It’s going to make a huge impact on them,” Taylor said. “They’ve heard a living artist explain his artwork. Not only do they get to understand the content of the piece, they also get to actually see someone who makes his living with art.”
Barker said kids asked him if he really believed the world would be this blissful in 10 years.
“It’s not going to be this Pollyanna; it’s not going to be this Disney-esque; it’s not going to be all nice stuff,” he said. “It’s going to be a mix. Like present-day reality, there’s going to be bad things and good things.”
Some of the things he’s hoping for are roads made of permeable materials, half-soil and half-concrete, so water can properly drain instead of sweeping oil and soot through the sewers to the ocean. He sees people spending more time with their families and less time stuck in an office.
He also managed to put a few gags in, such as two dogs drinking at a fountain with their owner while a separate fountain, labeled for dogs, lies a few feet below. There’s a flier on a kiosk advertising, “Vote for Murphy!” to honor an 11-year-old girl at Barker’s church sharing that name.
Hardy Murphy, superintendent of Evanston/Skokie School District 65, jokingly said it’s his favorite part of the mural but added the donation was an asset in general as well.
“Anytime an artist is willing to share his vision of the world, we should all be honored,” Murphy said.
Toward the right side of the piece, a man wearing a flannel shirt and jeans sketches out a mural in its infant stages along the wall beneath the El tracks. Barker, his gray hair contrasting with the deep green tree on his shirt, said he painted himself in. He’s starting work on his next vision of the future so he can correct what he guessed wrong.
“Is that Richard Gere from the back side there?” Taylor asked him good-humoredly, referring to the figure.
“You get to lie,” Barker responded. “It’s artistic license.”[email protected]
