Sykes co-created and co-designed this mosaic and ceramic in close collaboration withCorinne D. Peterson. It evokes the deep history of the area with a geologic and imagined landscape that embodies the region’s past and looks toward the future as it continues to be dreamed and created. The mural features an integration of clay and glass with a rusty iron heart at its center in homage to Nelson Algren’s ode to Chicago, City on the Make. It also contains some small fossil like elements from student work embedded in clay.

The mural follows in the tradition of telling Chicago’s stories through literature, music and art.  Using poetic visuals, it raises awareness of the rich veins of Chicago history of which each viewer is a part.  These include large movements–receding glaciers, Native American life, surges of immigration, the making and remaking of the city.  The mural is meant to create a place of mystery and movement that will draw viewers into dialogue and evoke imagining and discovery.   Because the history is interwoven with dream and memory, both collective and personal, the potential meanings of the layers can unfold over time. And, as in every generation youth attempt to distinguish themselves from the generation before them, aspects of the mural may be understood in new ways in the future.  Appropriate to the middle school setting and designed for its new building (2008) the mural is envisioned as a site students will continue to engage in the future, helping to carry out Latin School’s educational mission to create lifelong learners and seekers.