Chicago Sees the Light

In If These Walls Could Talk, Unit 3, our groups were tasked to design and create a large scale mural in the new GCE space. In unit 2 we created a sketch of what we wanted for our final mural and over the period of a couple weeks we had edited the mural and worked towards completing the prep work for the mural. We had faced many difficulties throughout the project, mainly the communication and the constant changing of the mural and its meaning over the course of the weeks we worked on it. However, despite these difficulties, our efforts payed off and the mural, although not our original message, turned out great. I'm very proud of all the hard work my group mates and I put into this mural because it turned out to be captivating and expressed our general message: that Chicago is more than it appears. Please enjoy the mural, the video of our progress, and my artist statement below.

   The purpose of our project was to show the many hidden gems of Chicago in order to reflect what we have learned in this course. The mural we created shows multiple different tourists of all shapes and sizes, that span across the length of the wall, walking by three different cracks in the wall that had collages that depict different images that represent the city: culture, art, and buildings. Most people who aren't from Chicago view the city as a corrupt and violent place that only has a few select beauties; such as the Bean, Willis Tower, and the Taste of Chicago. The media and techniques we used to create this mural were spray paint and stencils, used to create the people and cracks, and laser print images with wheat paste, used to put together our collages. The stencils had been created by tracing images onto a paper, via projector, and then adhesive glued onto the chipboard to be cut out. We used original photographs to create the collages, each with its own themes: art, culture and architecture, that were then laser printed to wheat paste into the cracks. We chose the background color of the wall to be grey so as to represent the skyline of Chicago without the skyline actually being there. All of the stencils had been spray painted black in order to stand out against the grey background. The bright eye catching colors come from the collages of the mural, which draws the attention of people to our main purpose: to show that Chicago is more than just violence and corruption. The mural is able to transform and impact the space by making it more visually appealing and by the fact it was created by students. This mural opens the eyes of the viewer to the real Chicago and what it has to offer.

Everyday each group member had a different role, which played a key part in completed the mural. Each member got the chance to partake in each role. There was the mule whose job was to collect all the materials group members needed to complete their tasks for the mural. The documentarian was in charge of taking pictures and videos in order for each member to create the reflection video. The artistic director had to make sure all the work that was done went along with the mural and made sure it was good quality. The last job was the director of operations who was responsible for keeping the other members on task and for cleaning up the messes made during the work time. My favorite role had been the mule because I was quick with the tasks I was assigned making me the perfect person to help assist others with their needs. My least favorite role had been the artistic director because I'm a very indecisive person especially when it comes to art and it is very hard for me to envision a piece that has not been completed or drawn on paper. However, I did understand the importance and need for the role because without it we would not have a a nice looking final mural. If I had the ability to change parts of the process and experience I would want better communication among group members so there would be less confusion and stress for everyone and more time within the new space to work on the mural. I also would want to have it so that we wouldn't have needed to constantly change the looks and message of the mural throughout the whole process and have made all the edits in the very beginning. The final piece did achieve our original goal of showing that Chicago is more than meets the eye while creating a beautiful artwork. However it had not turned out, visually, how we originally pictured it with the skyline idea being completely removed and the addition of people walking by the cracks. Due to our hard work we were able to create a gorgeous artwork that had impacted the space we worked in.

'Real' Chicago

In If These Walls Could Talk, Unit 2, we learned about revolt murals, different types of mediums and techniques. Artists who were inspiring that we studied are JR, who uses different media - mostly wheat pasting - in each country he visits, and Banksy, who uses spray paint and the trompe l'oeil technique. We practiced the mediums and techniques of watercolor, block-printing, wheat pasting, gels, acrylic paint, and more which helped in deciding what to use in the action project. For the action project we were put into a group of five to sketch a mural idea, and then each member chose a media to use to recreate two parts of the mural on swatches. My medium, watercolor wash, was fun to use but became difficult when it came down to small details. Another problem I faced was with my group when we had to come up with a finalized sketch. Eventually we were successful and with the help of our teacher we were able to create a mural conveying the message we wanted. It was a lot of fun experimenting with different mediums and techniques and to create a mural of our own. I'm definitely looking forward to creating this mural full-scale. Please enjoy our sketch, my swatches, and my artist statement below.

TS
'Real' Chicago
12/15
11" x 3.5" and 11" x 3.5"
Watercolor Wash

AJ, JM, MS, TS, TC. Sketch. 12/15

In our groups sketch you see the skyline of Chicago and five tears with something different inside, burning money, the CTA train map, gang signs, the bean, and signs/flags. This is meant to be what people see as the 'real' Chicago and what actually is the real Chicago. Each tear has a different meaning, three good and two bad. The two negatives are the one with burning money, which is supposed to be a representation of the corrupt politics and brutality, and the one with gang signs, which represents the gangs and violence that is present in the city. The three positives are the one with the CTA train map, showing the great public transportation system we have, the one with the bean, proving we have more beautiful architect and culture then what is popular, and the one with many signs/flags, representing the acceptance our city has regardless of race, religion, or sexuality. We were strongly inspired by Banksy and his use of trompe l'oeil and our unit 1 action projects. The aspects that had been taken from our previous action project had been the skyline, trompe l'oeil, and CTA train lines. It took a long time to finalize our sketch since there had been so many aspects we wanted to cram in. The only idea that we originally wanted that ended up not incorporating had been the use of chains AJ used in her previous action project. It was a really great concept, holding Chicago down to what outsiders want it to look like, but was unable to fit in the piece in a fluid way. We did love the skyline and the trompe l'oeil like tears. Since there had been five tears we gave one to each individual to come up with something to represent the tear. It gave us the freedom to include something each of us wanted adding a unique touch to it. This mural is both a revolt mural against the steriotypical view of Chicago from an outsiders perspective, and tribute mural of the true essence of Chicago and who we are as a city.

TS. Swatch One. 12/15

TS. Swatch Two. 12/15

The material I chose was watercolor wash because I have past experience with it and I've seen beautiful watercolor paintings. It gives bright vibrant colors and adds depth, very important to our piece, to the image. In class we learned how water colors are best for giving a painting or drawing depth and texture, also its ease to mix is a great asset. It helps convey the message through its depth which shows we are more than what is on the surface and the colors that blend show we are one. The swatches ended up looking messy and with smudges in places that had lots of detail. It was very difficult to control my medium because of how easy it is to blend and I did not have a small enough brush for the small details. In the end the swatches did not turn out how I hoped because the colors weren't as bright as I hoped and the details were far to difficult to paint. I believe if I had a smaller finer brush I think it would have worked. We will not be using this in our final mural because of the lack of bright colors and difficulties with the detail, which is a major part of our mural. It also didn't present the realistic look we were going for with the skyline.

JM. Swatch One. 12/15

JM. Swatch Two. 12/15

AJ. Swatch One. 12/15

AJ. Swatch Two. 12/15

My group decided on using wheat pasting with a laser print image and stencils with sharpie oil based markers as the final medium because those seemed to of worked best out of all the mediums chosen. We are still doing the trompe l'oeil technique because we believe it is the best way to get our message out. The wheat paste will give the realistic feel we were going for and would be used for the entire skyline and water. Since the image would be laser print the colors would already be there bright though slightly matte. Stencils would then be used for the small details that were too difficult to do with watercolor, pumice gel, or acrylic paint. It would create a clean cut images for our representations and tears with eye catching hues. We highlight the city for what it is with the skyline and positive traits in bright and vibrant colors while the negative traits will be in darker more matte like colors.

Ή τάν ή επι τάς (Either We Win or We Die)

In If These Walls Could Talk, Unit 1, we learned about murals from Prehistory to the Renaissance. We observed the changing styles throughout time and identified the reason each culture had for creating murals. For our FE we went on a tour of the Pilsen murals to both tie together what we learned and to see how murals still affect people today. This lead us to our first action project, pick a neighborhood in Chicago and create a sketch for a mural addressing an issue of that neighborhood. I choose Greektown which has, like many other neighborhoods, been a victim of gentrification. Originally I planned on doing a neighborhood in the south side, but wasn't inspired causing me to bounce from neighborhood to neighborhood forcing me to rush to complete the action project. I am very satisfied with the neighborhood I chose and my mural portraying their problems. Please enjoy my mural and artist statement below.

TS
Ή τάν ή επι τάς, 11/20/15
11" x 14"
Digital Image

 
The first Greeks in Chicago arrived during the 1840s becoming food peddlers, and naturally became restaurant owners. Around the turn of the century many Greeks were found in, what was originally named, Deltaîbut which was defined by Harrison, Blue Island and Halsted areas. It was later renamed to Greektown and during the 1960s was moved north a few blocks in order for University of Illinois and the Eisenhower Expressway to be built, shrinking the size of the neighborhood. In 1968 gyros and saganaki were introduced instantly becoming a big hit; starting a chain of success for the neighborhood. Most businesses and restaurants opened from 1970 to 1990, and the summer festival, Taste of Greece, became a tradition. The city of Chicago finally recognized Greektown's contributions to the city in 1996 and, with the Democratic National Convention being hosted in Chicago, poured millions of dollars into renovations for the streets and to create a traditional Greek temples and pavilions.

Today, Greektown sustains many old world traditions, prevalent in the establishments throughout the neighborhood. The language is still heard, and the people of the community have strong pride for their heritage, coming out full force during the annual Greek Independence Day parade, the Taste of Greece and the days around Greek Easter. Chicago's Greektown has grown into a renowned attraction, being the place to go for authentic food and culture outside of Greece. Though I don't want to focus on positive of Greektown's outstanding success, but rather the gentrification of the residents of the neighborhood it has caused. Due to the rising popularity it became extremely expensive to live in and many residents left and have spread out across Chicago and the suburbs. This issue is apparent and seen not only in Greektown, but across the city.

People should not be forced to move from their neighborhoods just because they can not afford the growing rate to live there. I wanted the mural as a revolt against gentrification. In the sketch I drew an outline of the city of Chicago with a Greek soldier holding a spear fighting a businessman holding a one hundred dollar bill. The businessman represents the success places has that cause the higher cost for living in an area. They hold the one hundred dollar bill as a weapon showing that in order to still live in the neighborhood they must pay. You then see a traditional Greek soldier who represents Greektown and the want to lower the house fees so they can remain in the neighborhood. Underneath these two people a silhouette of the city can be seen to show that this is a problem around Chicago. The main color theme of blues and golds was inspired by ancient Greek murals; the colors are meant to bring in a reference to water since it is such an important part of their culture.

This mural would be located in the heart of Greektown's businesses, the place with the highest influx of people guaranteeing that a large amount of people, both Greek and non-Greek, would see it. For this mural I want people to realize that we can fix this gentrification, whether it be by talking to the mayor to lower living costs in these business dominate areas or by extending neighborhoods by a few blocks to get back that missing residential factor. People will be able to live comfortably in a community that supports them, that is my hope.