C O L L A B O R A T I O N

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P e c h a K u c h a – V o l  5 3  p o s t e r

It’s fun to make posters for people you enjoy.

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Y o u  A r e  B e a u t i f u l

For the month of November, any stickers you order from You Are Beautiful will include one of my own, as I was selected to be their artist of the month. Which brought a big smile to my face. I have been a fan of YAB since they began spreading love in 2002, and have collaborated with them before (scroll down for more), so it is lovely to reconnect with fellow Chicagoans in the name of sharing a positive message.

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P e c h a K u c h a – V o l  4 6  p o s t e r

A poster I made for the swell folks at PechaKucha Chicago.

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S c o t t  U r b a n

   

My friend (always, Scott) Scott Urban, founder and creative genius behind Urban Spectacles, launched a new type of eye wear called Reflectacles – highly reflective sunglasses & prescription specs – and some of my drawings (and my mug) [were] on his new website. Take a look. Reflectacles may change the way you look at the world. Maybe they’ll change the way that the world looks at you. Oooh deep. At the very least, they are unique.

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N a t i o n a l  G e o g r a p h i c

In August of 2013, science journalist Virginia Hughes asked to use one of my drawings for a story about consciousness that she posted on the National Geographic website, which you can read as a PDF by clicking the link below. But only if you want to. There’s no pressure here. Consciousness is a Process. It is an interesting read, however.

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C h r i s  S i l v a

Brilliant individual and generally cool cat Chris Silva asked me to write the forward to a 13-year retrospective book of his gorgeous and influential street art, a task for which my talents were doomed to fall short, but a task I undertook none the less.

Titled Each Other’s Harvest (this first of what I assume will be many volumes about this man’s work) is currently available for you to purchase and enjoy. Over the course of this first decade-plus of his career, you can witness the visual evolution of a young master working with tile mosaic, spray paint, large-scale public installation, found wood assemblages, and complex timed video projection. Chris is one of my favorite humans.

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S h a w n  S t u c k y

I had the privilege of working with Chicago artist extraordinaire Shawn Stucky on a 12 by 25-foot mural for the new (it has since closed; not our fault) Redmoon Theater space in Pilsen. Stucky, who entered art making as a screen printer, had never embarked upon so large a piece. Nor had I. Working with him and a few other friends and artists over the course of five cold January and February weeks in the unfinished (meaning expansive, empty, cement and steel wonderful industrial space) theater, we turned his digitally produced image into this pretty good looking hand-painted mural.

The project came to me at a time when I needed a big wall to attack, something to release heartbreak and rage and confusion onto, so it was unquestionably an instance in which art served a therapeutic role for me. What I make is unquestionably a response to the stimulus, to the trauma and experience of being alive in my skin.

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L i n d a  W a r r e n

The incomparable Linda Warren of Linda Warren Projects, formerly of Chicago, asked me to write copy for this hardcover book detailing the collection of exquisite contemporary art at the new Eaton Center in Ohio. Nearly one hundred fine artists – including Juan Angel Chevez, Lora Fosberg, Peter Drake, and Michiko Itatani – have work hanging in Eaton’s new headquarters, and I wrote a small piece about each of them, which was pretty damn enjoyable, for the most part.

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O r a n g e  T r e e  T h e a t r e

In August of 2011, London’s Orange Tree Theater used one of my drawings – I’ll eat your shame and make you new – as the poster, season program cover, and handbill for the English language premier of Vaclav Havel’s The Conspirators. Orange Tree is the oldest theater-in-the-round in London, and I was happy to have my work in their repertoire for an entire season. They even spelled my name right.

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Y o u  A r e  B e a u t i f u l

This is one of the letters I contributed to the You Are Beautiful State Street mural back in 2006. The installation spanned the entire length of Block 37 during much of the construction of what now occupies that block: a shopping mall. At least it was interesting for a while. I still see the mural, superimposed by memory, whenever I’m walking down that part of State Street. It’s not so much a conscious refutation of shopping malls as it is a more lovely way to remember space. But it’s also a refutation of shopping malls. My eternal gratitude to the great Chicago artist Chris Silva for bringing me into this project.

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 R y a n  R o b e r t s

Urban vinyl toy photographer and all around hilarious and harmonious human being Ryan Roberts graced one of my very old drawings by including it in one of his photographs. This is called “Come out come out wherever you are.”

Urban vinyl toys? Looking back at that phrase, I can’t help but wonder if I just totally pulled it out of my ass. Regardless, Ryan does fun and often quite intricate work, and I’ve always enjoyed his sense of humor. I have one of his photographs – Popeye drowning in a pool of spinach – hanging appropriately in my kitchen.

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