Chicago murals: Artist's alter ego poses for a booking photo in Noble Square
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"Go home Jerome!"
Those three words are found at the bottom of a West Town mural that looks like a booking photo.
A little dude with glasses, flyaway black hair and massive chompers poses with a big, cheesy smile.
His eyes are closed and he’s flashing the peace sign while holding another sign saying “Chicago Police Dept.” and "18 Aug. 2025."
Tucked in his pocket is the criminal evidence: a can of spray paint.
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Artist Jerome Tiunayan stands across the alley from the Little Jerome mural with another mural, one that he painted with his friend and fellow Chicago muralist, Birdmilk.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Jerome is the childlike alter ego of muralist Jerome Tiunayan of Little Village.
He was inspired by Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip by Bill Watterson that Tiunayan says he's loved since he was a kid.
“It’s me trying to throw my hat into that ring,” Tiunayan says. “I’ve always wanted to have a character like that and send him off to adventures.”
Little Jerome’s booking portrait is in an alley off North Greenview Avenue, between West Chicago Avenue and West Fry Street.
Across the alley, Jerome makes another appearance in a mural that Tiunayan painted with his friend and fellow Chicago muralist, Birdmilk.
But little Jerome is mainly found in Tiunayan’s studio art, where he draws freehand with acrylic paint on canvas or panel.
There little Jerome strikes a pose in front of a mirror, rock climbs over a river, rushes to school, meditates under a waterfall and daydreams about being a boxer, among other adventures.
It’s “easier to communicate certain emotions and ideas … through the lens of a child,” Tiunayan says.
Painting Little Jerome is a way of making his art autobiographical without being heavy handed.
For the booking photo mural, Tiunayan says he used mainly spray paint and finished the detail work with a brush.
The piece was commissioned by the building owner, who wanted to communicate the different impressions many have of street art.
Is it graffiti?
Is it celebrated?
Is it a crime?
For the mural he came up with “this innocent little kid, wet behind the ears, juxtaposing it with a mug shot,” Tiunayan says.
Tiunayan and his wife, a Chicago Public Schools teacher, moved to Chicago about three years ago from Brooklyn where Tiunayan was born and raised, he says.
The handle “Go Home Jerome!” was concocted for Tiunayan’s first Twitter profile in high school.
Along with painting little Jerome, Tiunayan says he works at “anything that keeps me in the studio.” That could be digital design, freelance work, communications, tattoo designs or art installations.
Tiunayan’s work also can be found at Chicago’s Vertical Gallery, which specializes in touring exhibits of urban-contemporary art, as well as his website.
“This life is very uncertain,” Tiunayan says of being an artist. “I’ll take on anything that comes my way.”