Title:  Roots and Wings


Site:  3543 W. 63rd Street, Chicago


Artists:  Caryl Yasko and Lucyna Radycki


Assistants: Casey Pasciak, Frank Orlowski, and Robert Dilley


Community Participants: Local volunteers


Sponsors:  Chicago Mural Group (now CPAG)


Year:  1976


Scale:  1400 square feet


Materials:  Oil paint on brick, concrete relief


Information:  This massive mural in Chicago Lawn is believed to be the first community arts project in the nation to combine paint and cast concrete. Artists and residents carved styrofoam to create shapes of personal and neighborhood symbols. These were then mounted in wooden forms to become concrete molds. A painted tree bearing several faces grows from the concrete relief. An inscription reads: “There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children--one is roots; the other, wings.”