Wicker Park

3 Shell station on northeast corner selling gas for $2.25:gal..jpg

7 Winchester and alley behind Division with city plantings and rear of 1925 W. D

Fictitious setting

3 Shell station on northeast corner selling gas for $2.25:gal..jpg

1/11

This series of small paintings illustrates my old neighborhood in Chicago, in and around the intersection of Winchester and Division streets where my apartment was located. I created them when I learned I would be moving away from Chicago as a way to remember how things were. At that time I was working in an architectural firm creating digital illustrations of office parks. I was required to use a standard set of colors, lines and formats for the office parks which resulted in very cold, abstract, detail-less images. I thought it would be funny to portray my very real, very gritty, very colorful neighborhood in this completely homogenous way. There is no way I could possibly capture all the flavors, colors, sounds and smells of this place, so I opted for a ridiculous portrait recognizable by no one.