His years illustrating pulp novels honed his sense of pictorial drama, and his meticulous research ensured historical accuracy, notably in his Civil War paintings.

Some Chicago murals “are political, and some are purely beautiful, and most are somewhere in between," artist Cyd Smillie says.

In her art pieces Darakjian said she used colored pencils, oil paints, watercolor, inks, and acrylic paint. She said the journals are like acrylic paint, the poems are like oils, you have to have ...