A Naperville artist plans to enhance the city with a new mural behind the DuPage Children’s Museum. Rich Lo, a professional artist and published author, is basing the mural on one of his children’s books.
“It’s inspired by one of my best-selling books called “Chinese Kite Festival” and it’s full of colors and kites that mimic animals. It’s going to be fun, It’s going to be colorful, and It’s going to be imaginative,” said Lo.
NCTV17 follows the process
NCTV17 has been following Lo since he began working on the mural on Sept. 10. The first step in the process was priming the wooden panels.
“By putting two coats in it helps me, first see the colors better than the actual color of the boards. Secondly, it adds adhesiveness so the paint can stay better on the board,” said Lo.
Two days later, he moved on to the gridding process.
“This allows me to look at the printout and look at the grid, which I number, so my composition is close to correct with how I designed it. So the grid system gives you some guidance where the lines should go,” said Lo.
Who is Rich Lo?
Before adding over 40 years of experience to his palette, Lo was a young boy in Kowloon, Hong Kong, with a strong passion for art.
“I came from a family of musicians and artists. I remember as young as three or four, I was painting with my older brothers and sisters. I looked at my older brother’s work and said, ‘I want to be just like him’,” said Lo.
At age six, Lo and his family immigrated to the United States, living in Los Angeles for a year before moving to Chicago’s Chinatown, where he lived for 11 years.
He went on to study art at Eastern Illinois University, planning to become an art teacher, but during graduate school, he realized that wasn’t the path for him.
“I didn’t think that I was going to be a professional artist. I thought I’d teach, I’ll do something for 20 years, [and] eventually, something will happen. But with a lot of luck, I was able to find work right out of college,” said Lo.
His first professional opportunity was a freelance job drawing animals for elementary school math books.
“It [gave] me an idea that I can be a professional. That people will actually pay for my artwork, which I think is absolutely incredible,” said Lo.
Rich Lo paints his second mural
From there, he went on to publish seven children’s books and thousands of commissioned art pieces. In 2022, he had his first opportunity to paint a mural on the west wall of the Chinese American Museum of Chicago, titled “Chinese Opera.”
“I chose Chinese opera because it’s part of my family’s legacy and things just turned for me. I just realized that I have a purpose with my work. Instead of just doing commercial art, I can say something with my artwork,” said Lo.
A year later, Nancy Chen, president of Chinese American Women in Action (CAWA), suggested that Lo apply for Naperville’s Special Events and Community Arts (SECA) funding for a local mural project. In 2024, his application was approved,
Thankfully, Lo kept all his previous equipment.
“I didn’t think about ever doing another mural, but I didn’t want to be a one-hit wonder either, so I saved it just in case. All of this stuff is from the first job,” said Lo.
The sketching process
After completing the priming and gridding stages of the project in just three days, Lo began sketching the animal kites on the board.
These include a bee, bat, owl, tiger, ladybug, and two fish.
“Sketching is allowing me to understand where all the kites are. So when I come to coloring, it will give me a real accurate guide. Of course, things can change, but that’s how the process goes,” said Lo.
Two weeks into the project, Lo is currently painting the left side of the mural and will continue working before putting a final coating in the next few weeks. He hopes to share the completed version of “Chinese Kite Festival” with the community by Oct. 20.
“Always my intent is to beautify the city. To give the city world-class artwork. I kind of like that idea. To leave a piece of artwork, for all to see, for years to come,” said Lo.
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