Chicago murals: Artist James Mosher's goal-scorer adorns West Town venue for soccer fans

The rotating rooftop skeleton riding a motorcycle is gone, as are the strings of lights dangling above the deck. But a new mural from artist James Mosher appeared this month on the side of the former home of the Twisted Spoke biker bar, a sign that another passionate niche crowd is about to take over.

The street level mural at 501 N. Ogden Ave. in West Town features a cartoonish person nonchalantly kicking a soccer ball powerfully into the net. Shown as comic book frames, the mural is a preview of the new business to come, Soccer House HQ.

Mosher — his last name, artist name and what most people call him — finished the mural in less than a week earlier this month, navigating rain and wildly swinging temperatures typical of Chicago's fake spring.

“It was fun to create something that was very much my style,” says Mosher, a Logan Square artist. He came up with the initial design, then worked with the owners of the new business to nail down the colors. He used both house paint and spray paint to create the image, tapping spray paint for the line work and a lot of the color.

That erratic Midwest weather didn't faze Mosher, who grew up in Clearwater, Florida, and moved to Chicago about 16 years ago.

“I don’t like the heat so much, and the humidity. I wanted to go somewhere there was a change in seasons and I could feel time pass,” Mosher says. “Being hot all the time, it feels like the years drift by and you don’t really notice it.”

That, Mosher says, is not something he feels here.

His murals and studio artworks, he says, draw inspiration from cartoons and comic books: “I call it character-driven pop art.”

While the person kicking the ball on the soccer mural has yellow-orange skin tone, Mosher says he did not draw that from "The Simpsons," even though he’s a big fan.

“It was unintentional,” he says. However, “now I can’t not see it.”

Mosher’s favorite mural that he’s painted in Chicago is titled “Chicago Handshake,” and features a can of Old Style chasing a bottle of Malört. It's at the outdoor beer garden at The Native neighborhood bar in Logan Square. His work also is splashed across a wall at Logan Square’s Emporium Arcade Bar.

Next, Mosher said he’s working on a mural for an upcoming vintage toy store in Lake View. That mural will feature ‘80s and ‘90s toys exploding out of a soda bottle.

“I used to live in their neighborhood when I first got to Chicago and going back felt nostalgic,” he said.

As for Soccer House HQ, that new establishment is not a place to play soccer, but where fans can watch games streaming from all over the world.

While the mural is in his favorite style, Mosher says soccer is not his favorite sport.

“I played for a year when I was 7 and I was not very good at it. But I enjoy 'Ted Lasso.'”