Save the Frankie Knuckles Mural!

For the last 16 months, the smiling face of the most wonderful man in Chicago has greeted travelers on the El from atop a building at Fullerton and California.

Recently, however, the Frankie Knuckles mural in Logan Square created in the days following his death by graffiti artists BboyB, Des, Flash, Mugs, Slugs, Skol and Statik has been painted over after renovations began on the building hosting the mural between the California and Logan Square stops on the Blue Line train.

DJ Michael Tupak has been engaged in finding a new home for the mural, which in one year has become as much a part of the Chicago landscape as the outline of the Hancock or Buckingham Fountain.

“We want to properly locate this thing,” Tupak told the Chicago Tribune in a story published this morning, and will be meeting with Mile of Murals in Rogers Park to discuss a location for a new Knuckles mural.

Tupak said the intention is to re-create the original mural, which features a likeness of Knuckles with a vinyl record behind him as a halo, but if the new space is larger, organizers may add to it in some way that has yet to be determined. It took about four days in May 2014 to paint the original mural on the rooftop along the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line, Tupak said.

Tupak has created a project on gofundme to raise $2000 for expenses relating to the mural, with any leftover funds earmarked for the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.