Artist behind 2023’s Warhol-inspired portraits paints mural at Hanover Park Sports Complex
Physical upgrades to the Hanover Park Sports Complex now are accompanied by an aesthetic one in the form of Glen Ellyn artist Geoffrey Bevington’s mural, “The Joy of Play,” on the previously stark south side of the field house.
Bevington has become better known locally in recent years for his 30-foot-by-20-foot Frida Kahlo mural facing the Metra station in downtown Glen Ellyn, and the more than 100 Andy Warhol-inspired portraits he created of prominent past and present DuPage County residents last year for an exhibit at the College of DuPage.
Having been at his craft for nearly four decades, Bevington considers himself to be in his third act — one in which he’s expressing his personal tastes and enthusiasms more than ever.
“I guess in my third act I’ll be putting a big emphasis on doing what I love,” he said. “I’d like to do more public art. I’d like to do my own art, which is silk screen.”
“The Joy of Play” features vibrantly colorful silhouettes of athletes and musicians on the field house’s blue background.
Bevington embarked on the $14,000 project at 1200 Sycamore Ave. with no more specifics to his commission than to “create a mural.” After being inspired by the sports and music that happens there, he chose colors from the village’s multicultural globe logo that would stand out.
The logo finds its way onto the mural in the form of the soccer ball, tennis ball, baseball and football.
A shuttered window in the middle of the south wall was considered to be painted over as if it wasn’t there. But it ultimately was incorporated as an element dictating the position of the figures near it, including the ballplayer diving for a catch underneath.
As is his usual practice, naming the work was the last thing Bevington did. His wife asked what the yellow figure of a girl near the window represented. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Joy or play.” The title became a riff on that.
Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig said the mural and other improvements further his longtime hope of making the sports complex something special for the community. Since the days when his son played there, maintenance of the facility largely has fallen on the busy parents of its young athletes.
“It’s really looking good,” Craig said. “We’re on the cusp of some really good things. We want to make it a hometown, family-friendly facility. We’re going to get there.”
Meanwhile, Bevington already is looking ahead to his next project in June. He’ll be painting a 44-foot-by-10-foot mural in Beverly Shores, Indiana, south of the Depot Museum and Art Gallery that’s surrounded by the Indiana Dunes National Park.
The theme of the mural will be “Beverly Shores, Bird Town Indiana” and will feature a lake-to-beach-to-dunes-to-forest setting with up to eight colorful birds that either live or migrate through the area.