Wicker

My elective term class is called, If Theses Walls Could Talk. Which is a art class that I am taking to learn more art history; and learning about murals, to help us build our new school space and add murals in our building. We learned about Prehistory, Egyptian, Greek, and Renaissance art to better understand how art came about and how it changed over time. The first Action Project we had to create our own mural based on an neighborhood in Chicago, we had to create a mural that show what we think that neighborhood needs. I picked Wicker Park because I really like that area, and I wanted to do a tribute mural for it showing all cools pieces of art that I have seen and putting all of them together to make one mural. What I struggled with this project was staying trying to stick with one topic. What I enjoyed was making my mural. 

JV

11/2015
Wicker 11” x 14”
Photoshop. 

Wicker Park is a Chicago neighborhood located northwest of the Loop, south of Bucktown and west of Pulaski Park. Wicker Park is named after two real-life people. The first actual “hipsters” because they created the coolest part of Chicago and this area became well known because of Charles and Joel Wicker were two Chicago businessmen, who helped build the city during the late 1800’s. The two brothers bought 80 acres of land off Milwaukee Ave around 1868. And they donated 4 acres to Chicago Public Park. But in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed some of the area. After the fire, the neighborhood started building new houses and created many jobs that helped European immigrants.

Today, Wicker Park continues to grow as a community. Not only does Wicker Park have cool murals all around the neighborhood. Art is also a big theme in the area, I feel like art brings the community together, and brings life and color. Many artist live in Wicker Park but they don’t get recognized for the amazing work they are doing. Wicker Park is filled with the coolest hipsters that stay up-to-date with fashion and have cool looking styles, which brings a unique life to the area I think it brings youth together instead of going against each other. Since Wicker Park has clothing stores more teenagers tend to shop in that area, and by that many meet new people which is the culture of the neighborhood. Wicker Park also has really good restaurants, which brings more people to come check out the neighborhood and also bring more business. Wicker Park is becoming a big tourist spot. Wicker Park was named the #4 hippest neighborhood in the country. The total population in Wicker Park is 52,131. Every year in July the Wicker Park Fest is held, which brings people from all around to enjoy music, food, and good vibes.

The mural I chose to do is a tribute because I want to show my love for Wicker Park, I also want to make Wicker Park more known. I feel like a lot of people in Chicago don’t know about this area and a lot don’t know about why murals are made and what the purpose of art in a neighborhood. I like how Wicker Park has such good vibes and feels like a community so many people are just walking around and talking. I want to show how I feel in Wicker Park and how I see it as such a cool part of my city. My mural is going to be created using photoshop. I will be putting all the murals that I have seen in Wicker Park to create my own and to show the work of the ones who created these murals in their neighborhood . I think this will be cool because I will be using the purpose of the Renaissance as inspiration for why I am creating this piece of artwork. The Renaissance was a new era of life because before art was just flat, it had no depth everything was the same size. Paintings became more cool by adding depth and a horizon line, creating a art piece that is appealing to the eye with colors, depth, and style. I want to use a lot elements like that in my mural, I plan to use colors I want to use these sets of eyes, that are to show everything I see in Wicker Park. I want to repeat images to create depth and make it look unique. Im also going to use this art piece of this little character that I see all around the neighborhood. I think he look really cool and I only see him in Wicker Park. I added "We Can Donut" because my favorite donut shop is in Wicker Park, and I also added a girl in the confer to represent fashion. I really like creating my mural and I think it looks pretty cool.