{"id":80690,"date":"2019-06-19T09:14:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T14:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=80690"},"modified":"2019-06-19T09:41:30","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T14:41:30","slug":"the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind the &#8216;Bird City Saint&#8217; and why the artist hopes it empowers others"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> By Jessy Zhou <\/strong><br \/>\n<em> Medill Reports <\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">It&#8217;s common sight on murals in Chicago \u2014 a bird head on a human body, looking skyward, often accompanied by a quote. The image, called the Bird City Saint,\u00a0 is a signature of Joseph &#8220;Sentrock&#8221; Perez, a muralist and sculptor who moved to Chicago from Arizona to pursue a career as a full-time artist.<\/p>\n<p>Sentrock\u2019s \u201cbirdman\u201d appears on several murals in Pilsen, where he wants his work to empower teens in the neighborhood by lifting their spirits. &#8220;I feel like my work\u00a0 gives hope,&#8221; said Sentrock in the video story below. &#8220;A lot of the characters, they\u2019re like striving for more, they\u2019re looking up to the sky, and they really need something to feel uplifting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The story behind the &#039;Bird City Saint&#039; and why the artist hopes it empowers others\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/342448177?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Sentrock standing in front of a mural with a Bird City Saint image in Pilsen. (Courtesy Sentrock Studio)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jessy Zhou Medill Reports It&#8217;s common sight on murals in Chicago \u2014 a bird head on a human body, looking skyward, often accompanied by a quote. The image, called the Bird City Saint,\u00a0 is a signature of Joseph &#8220;Sentrock&#8221; Perez, a muralist and sculptor who moved to Chicago from Arizona to pursue a career [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":80692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,4741],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-80690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-spring-2019","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The story behind the &#039;Bird City Saint&#039; and why the artist hopes it empowers others - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The story behind the &#039;Bird City Saint&#039; and why the artist hopes it empowers others - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jessy Zhou Medill Reports It&#8217;s common sight on murals in Chicago \u2014 a bird head on a human body, looking skyward, often accompanied by a quote. The image, called the Bird City Saint,\u00a0 is a signature of Joseph &#8220;Sentrock&#8221; Perez, a muralist and sculptor who moved to Chicago from Arizona to pursue a career [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-19T14:14:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-19T14:41:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/sentrock.jpg-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jessyzhou2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jessyzhou2019\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/\",\"name\":\"The story behind the 'Bird City Saint' and why the artist hopes it empowers others - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/sentrock.jpg-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-19T14:14:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-19T14:41:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/a06126120bcb8a453ea5a1984e1b638e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-story-behind-the-bird-city-saint-and-why-the-artist-hopes-it-empowers-others\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/sentrock.jpg-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/sentrock.jpg-.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":1100,\"caption\":\"Sentrock standing in front of Bird City Saint in Pilsen. 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