When Ruby Bean heard the call for an Andersonville mural inspired by lesbianism, she knew the cowgirls would be perfect.
“Chicago has a rich history with cowgirls, and same with Texas,” said Bean, a Texas native. “A lot of my art has to do with capturing their histories.”
So Bean submitted her design: two cowgirls “who are in love and holding hands.” The colors of the desert at sunset behind them are also the colors from the lesbian flag, dark orange graduating down to dark pink. The white of the fence the two cowgirls lean against represents the equality sign.
Ruby Bean, who moved to Chicago from Texas, learned to create murals at Columbia College.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
“I wanted it to be really on the nose with the lesbianism,” said Bean, who lives in Edgewater. But it also needed to be subtle.
In other words, if you know, you know.
The idea was perfect for Searah Deysach, owner of feminist sex toy shop Early to Bed and the building that houses it at 5138 N. Clark St.
“I liked that it was kind of evocative of romance without being overly graphic or expectedly gay,” Deysach said.
“I thought we had an opportunity to take advantage of putting more art and more queer art into the neighborhood,” she said. Andersonville boasts a lot of botanic and butterfly murals, so “I loved how sort of random cowgirls in Andersonville seemed. I just loved her vision.”
Early to Bed celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The shop has been at its current location since 2022.
Bean said the cowgirl on the right in her mural is a nod to her best friend’s Black and Native American heritage. The one on the left reminds Bean of the cowgirls with Southern Texas charm that she knew back home.
“She’s the sweetheart in the painting,” Bean said.
The idea of cowgirls tracks for Andersonville. It’s adjacent to the Uptown neighborhood that was once a draw for those moving from Appalachia and other spots in rural America, bringing their country music with them, according to author and Chicago Sun-Times contributor Mark Guarino in his book “Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival.”
Bean rode her bicycle from Edgewater to paint the mural on multiple plywood panels in the backyard of Deysach’s building last fall, she said. A friend from roller derby, who also works for an art installation company, helped mount it. Bean has done roller derby since she was 8, she said, and rolls under the name Black Eyed Bean.
A scholarship to Columbia College brought Bean to Chicago from Texas in 2020, she said. She discovered murals working with her mentor and Columbia College instructor Cheri Lee Charlton.
During the pandemic, she said, Charlton would invite students to don a mask and come outside to paint murals with her. Bean responded and began learning the trade. Now she paints murals full time.
“I did not expect it to happen, but it’s snowballed into something so wonderful, and I could not be more grateful for it,” she said.
As for the cowgirl mural, Bean said that as a lesbian herself, it was a fitting assignment.
In the end, she said, “I think that the important parts are it’s just a celebration of love and stories that are untold.”