‘From cartoons to graffiti to Picasso,’ Chicago painter finds inspiration all around

CHICAGO — Staring at a blank canvas, painter Natalie Osborne sees a face staring back. 

“If you look at it, you can kind of see the outlines,” Osborne said. “You kind of see your girls. I see my girls.”

Working in her Hyde Park studio, her vision is expressed through the eyes of the girls she knew as a child growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I’m specifically thinking of them,” she said. “Especially when you see the eyelashes, the color on the eyes. It’s my way of showing them, and I think it’s them saying, ‘look at me.’ They are worthy to be the girls in the museum.”

Using pop references and modern techniques, she describes herself as a contemporary artist with an historical outlook.

Her view was shaped by an event that took place more than a century ago, nearly 700 miles from Chicago.

The Tulsa Massacre of 1921, one of the darkest chapters in American history, still trembles through the landscape.  

According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, a mob of white supremacists rampaged through Tulsa for two straight days, killing up to 300 people.

The attackers burned more than 1,250 homes, destroying 35 square blocks, and erasing years of black success.

“It was called Black Wall Street,” Osborne said. “So, there was an economic surge in the predominantly black neighborhood in the ‘20s. Then there was a tragedy that happened, and they had to try to rebuild.”

Osborne sees it as her responsibility to rebuild in art what Tulsa once represented in America. 

“Growing up you just always heard about this kind of duty you have to try to be the best you can be,” she said. “Maybe you can add something to the history. Maybe you can help rebuild.”

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago recruited her as a high school student.

“I didn’t know what Michigan Avenue was,” Osborne said. “I was from Tulsa, Oklahoma, so imagine walking down Michigan Ave., and being like I can go to school in the back of that museum, right there? So, yeah, it was a wrap.”

The decision was made. Moving to Chicago gave her access to one of the world’s great art collections and provided endless inspiration.  

“Van Gogh’s Bedroom,” she said, “I want to make surfaces like that. It allowed me to project and see that if I work toward that, maybe my work would be in a museum.”

Now a full-time artist, her work is on display in galleries and in private collections. 

“I would say contemporary art, expressive cubism — from cartoons to graffiti to Picasso.”