Groundarts

Rising - 19” x 24”

Drawn on the tenth anniversary of September 11th, 2001, this depicts the way energy and hope and intention flow into the new structures, rising toward the sky. 

Waking City  - 11” x 14”

Drawn in an early morning parking lot as the city was waking around me, and thousands upon thousands of people were rising and starting off into the daylight.

Sanguine - 11” x 14”

These are bloody times we’re living in. It can be hard to maintain the faith that there will be a time when we can look back and be relieved and proud we survived. Someone described as having a ‘sanguine nature’, though, is cheerfully optimistic. Even in the bloodiest of days, then, it’s important to remain sanguine.

Herd - 11” x 14”

Trips to the Field Museum always get me picturing the world around me in different ways. Recent exhibits on mammoths and horses have me picturing the Chicago area as the end of a vast prairie that meets an inland sea, teeming with herds of grazing animals.

It’s a shame there are no cave drawings to be found in Illinois. Maybe this is what they’d look like.

Morning Glow - 19” x 24”

I recently learned that a college friend was killed almost exactly a year ago. It’s a strange sensation, digging through a year’s worth of memorial messages all at once. I drew this the morning after that cloudy day, and the title refers to a song Brian taught me how to sing on stage. The image of the first light rising behind snow-capped mountains is my hope that his young family has found some peace and light, as they reach the one-year mark.

Rainbow Beach - 19” x 24”

Fifty years ago, brave Chicagoans waded into Lake Michigan at a beach on the South Side, withstanding mob anger and violence weekend after weekend, until they were ultimately successful in integrating Chicago’s most iconic public space: the lakeshore.  

Room with a View - 19” x 24”

A drawing of a fictional room in Chicago, featuring one of my drawings on the wall and a glimpse of the gorgeous new Roosevelt University building, out the window.