The young man, alone before the “L” retaining wall at 14th and State Streets, steps back a few feet to survey the 8-foot-tall human outline while popping the top off a new can of Krylon “Smoke Grey” spray paint.
Using wispy strokes, like an orchestra conductor, Solo, as he calls himself, fills in the leg of the running figure-a lean body sporting baggy pants and backward cap like those of its creator-as excess paint droplets float through the morning air.
Just as he begins to angle creaes into the pants, he spots a Chicago Transit Authority employee marching his way.
But he does not run. He does not toss his Krylon in a bush and disclaim credit.
Instead he nods.
“Hey, Constance,” Solo says, greeting Constance Mortell, the agency’s external affairs officer, who, with CTA President Bob Belcaster, has created a mural contest for graffiti artists to paint on CTA property.
The two-day contest, which was held recently for the second time, has already saved the CTA more than $3 million in cleaning costs because many of these artists who were spraying their names (known as tagging) on CTA buses, trains or stations have found a positive outlet.
Only one station has been bombed (slang for a graffiti raid) since the first contest, Belcaster says. And the walls designed last year were never defaced, so CTA crews had fewer places to clean. Transit workers, especially the painters, were so pleased with last year’s results that 50 volunteered this year to monitor and assist the artists at the nine sites that stretch from the Howard station to State and 14th.
The idea for the contest, which had 150 participants this year, originated from a similar project Belcaster ran at a development site in San Francisco.
“The site was getting bombed by what I then called vandals. We decided to allow students to paint the murals on the fence, and voila, the graffiti stopped.”
Belcaster says he realized that these vandals were, for the most part, not gang members but merely bored teenagers full of creativity but with no place to express it.
“I don’t see this as vandalism anymore,” Belcaster says.
Solo, 19, belongs to the Aerosoul crew, one of 28 teams competing for prizes, including four one-semester scholarships at the American Academy of Art for the first-place group and one scholarship at the Art Institute for second. The top three finishers will also paint murals during the Oz Park Festival in August. The contest is judged by four professional artists.
But for many graffiti painters, the real prize is the freedom to express ideas and the admiration of other street artists.
“Younger guys will see this and respect it,” says BJ, an Art Academy student and member of a crew named TDS painting near Solo. (Many of the artists prefer to be known only by their nicknames.) “They won’t just want to duplicate it, but they’ll want to try something else.”
TDS has chosen “Universal Props” (props is slang for respect) as its theme.
Some concepts are serious, like Cubs Crew’s mural at Logan Square, “Oblivion,” referring to a place where the dead go and are forgotten, or, at 14th and State, Def Con 5’s “Garden of Stone,” a vision of death in its many forms. Other crews choose more whimsical messages.
Across from the Ravenswood station at Western and Lincoln Avenues, Angel of the Chapter 13 crew is searching for a can of Krylon “Baby Blue.” Angel, 22, who has been into graffiti for 10 years-beginning with tagging-chose “Through Positive Reflection” for the crew’s theme. He says the public has a misperception about what they do.
“All I hear is it’s a gang thing,” he says. “What we do is mainly illegal, but we’re not a gang. We’re just a union of friends who have hung around for years with the goal to be artistic and not to cause violence.”
Angel has painted murals for money, but he has a hard time with the concept of doing his art as a job.
“It’s like being a chess player,” he says. “You love to play, and then someone offers you money to play. It sounds cool, but then you have to play to make money. You have to play.”
Nevertheless, Angel is among the contestants Mortell has recommended for mural jobs. She keeps each crew’s name on file with pictures, and fields calls from businesses that want their own murals.
Waiting for the 48 bus, artist Sherry Payne admires Angel’s work.
“I think the city should be giving them more legitimate canvases,” she says. “But I don’t think the public gets it. They have trouble understanding the symbolism and how the hip-hop culture has influenced the work.” More murals, she said, “would brighten the city up.”
A mutual respect
The “Planet Rock” space mural, with a five-eyed, three-breasted, two-foot-tongued female casting glances at a one-eyed space dude, has exploded next to the pristine “Welcome to Logan Square” mural, a night and day mixture that accurately reflects the diverse ethnic backgrounds of both the neighborhood and each crew.
THC, the “Planet Rock” designers, think they spot a police officer personally responsible for having arrested many of them, and they’re preparing to be hassled even for this legitimate handiwork. The man, flashing his identification card, turns out to be a CTA painter, and the crew returns to work. They have several feet of white wall left.
While many CTA employees and artists have formed a mutual respect, graffiti on undesignated areas will never be tolerated, Mortell says.
Before last year’s contest, she spotted some graffiti on a wall of the Division Street station.
“It wasn’t my stop, but I got off and looked at it. When I went to my office, I looked in my files to see whose it was. I got hold of one of the boys, who said he couldn’t control what every crew member did.
“So I kicked them out of the contest.”
Angel, who now prefers to paint legal works (he does like not to be rushed), says he noticed an almost immediate reduction in graffiti on the trains and buses after last year’s contest.
But Melinda Manoni, a ticket taker at the Division and Ashland stop, where TBP is painting, says the contest solves nothing.
“What’s the difference between this and the other stuff?” she says, pulling a paint respirator from her face. “It’s all the same. And (taggers) still get my stairs and my clock and my ticket booth, so (CTA painters) still have to come clean all of that.”
Manoni says she had to take over a shift for a fellow employee because of the fumes, which can cause dizziness or headaches. Each contestant is given a respirator, though many do not use them or opt for a bandanna instead.
Making the public aware
As the 16-hour paintfest winds down, some crews scramble to fill in the expansive backgrounds.
The UFG crew, which will wind up winning first prize for the second straight year, casually sprays on the finishing touches to its mural “Spatial Harmony” at the North and Clybourn station. UFG requested the site because of its high profile, so the public could no longer ignore graffiti as artistic expression.
A conductor slows her train as it heads through the closed station, nods her head and mouths the words, “Not bad.”
Tony Lewellen, an Art Academy student and a UFG member for three years, says the crew doesn’t care how it finishes.
“If we win, we win, and if not that’s OK,” Lewellen says. “We just paint because we love it.”
MURAL SITES
1. Howard station, 1644 W. Howard St.
2. Broadway, wall south of Berwyn behind the Silo at 5245 N. Broadway.
3. Leland and Lawrence, retaining wall facing east.
4. Lincoln and Western station, 4645-49 N. Western Ave.
5. Logan Square, three sites near the station.
6. Wood and Wolcott (1400 N. Milwaukee Ave.), retaining wall behind Walgreens. Third-place winner (Ice Pack).
7. Division and Ashland station, 1200 N. Milwaukee, inside wall.
8. North and Clybourn, 1599 N. Clybourn, inside wall. First-place winner (UFG).
9. State and 14th, retaining wall. Second-place winner (Def Con 5).
