Painting a mural under the Purple Line takes Jordan Nickel back to his Evanston roots

Growing up in Evanston near the Noyes Street L stop, Jordan Nickel says the CTA Purple Line was his “lifeline to the city.” The budding artist took the train around Chicago, admiring graffiti before he started painting. So, when Lea Pinsky and Dustin Harris at Evanston’s Art Encounter commissioned him to paint a mural earlier this year, the location was perfect: It was on the wall at 828 Noyes St. under the Purple Line tracks. “It has such deep personal history with me,” says Nickel, who goes by the artist name POSE. “It’s insanely cool that they asked me to paint here.” This mural by Jordan Nickel, artist name POSE, is at 828 Noyes St. under the Purple Line L station in Evanston. Photo provided by Lea Pinsky Nickel, now living on the North Side, uses an abstract, comic book style. “I’m not literal. It’s like a puzzle for viewers,” he says. Hidden in the mural, which spans 85 feet, is the phrase “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Nickel says that slogan pays tribute to the DIY youth subculture he grew up in and Evanston’s reputation as a “big idea place.” With stacks...