Chicago's Graffiti Art And Street Art

Most artists take the mainstream approach and paint on canvas or carve from stone, but some take vast strides off the beaten path to create unusually creative Graffiti Art And Street Art that appeals to our subversive selves or our inner geek. From 3D, light and reverse graffiti to steampunk art, fashion and design here are some ways in which non-standard artists create works that challenge conventional thinking.

Graffiti art is more than something kids do out of boredom. It's more than defacing buildings and train cars. Graffiti, despite its choice of canvas that may be a source of annoyance and anger for the owners of such properties, is a form of art that often makes a societal statement. Some graffiti, though, is just fun expression with no particular message except to elicit awe, even laughs, by those who love it.

Graffiti is a largely misunderstood art form, if indeed the people will even accept it as one, but as the nature of mass communication has changed and as information technology has evolved so too have the means, modes and subject matter of what used to be a much simpler subversive form of urban artistic expression.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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Chicago Historic Old Town Triangle

New Orleans has its French Quarter; New York has Greenwich Village; Paris has Montmartre. And Chicago has its own little piece of charm that rivals them all. Chicago has Old Town - an oasis in the steel and stone heart of the city, an old-fashioned, do-it-yourself neighborhood beloved by artists and entrepreneurs as the perfect place to find a muse and raise a family. And while a casual, unobservant visitor can feel the magnetism of the place, lifelong residents may still be unaware of the many bits of history Old Town has drawn into itself.

The 19th Century is very present in Chicago's Old Town. It's there in the charming architecture, the quaint, narrow byways carved out when horse-drawn carriages plied the city, and carriage homes nestled in backyards. It's seen, too, in the short distances between residences and businesses - the walkable kind favored when foot power rather than horsepower ruled the day. Just walking through Old Town and gazing at homes could consume days. Newer, primarily red-brick structures south of North Avenue rival very old homes from 1871 to the turn of the century, and Louis Sullivan row houses from about 1890. All of which results in a neighborhood many residents wouldn't dream of leaving.

Old Town Chicago, a quaint and eclectic neighborhood that harbored the famous and infamous, is very charming. You walk down the streets, and you would never know you're in the heart of North America's third biggest city.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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Harbor Light Chicago

The Chicago Harbor Light, Chicago, was constructed in 1893 for the World's Columbian Exposition and moved to its present site in 1919. The Lighthouse was featured as "the engineering marvel" of Spectacle Reef Light and a 111-foot-tall (34 m) skeletal cast iron lighthouse tower. The structure has several levels: a concrete base and two red roofed buildings with a tapered white cylinder between them which is topped by a parapet and the light itself.

A number of Fresnel lenses were on display, including a stunning Third Order Fresnel lens which previously was awarded first prize at a Paris glass exhibition. The lens featured alternating red and white panels, and had been ordered for installation in the new lighthouse at Point Loma Light (new) in California. The coincidental conclusion of construction of the new Chicago Harbor light and the close of the Exhibition prompted the Lighthouse Board keep the lens in Chicago, and thus the lens was installed in the lantern room of the new Chicago Harbor Light tower.

In 1917 the breakwater was renovated. At the time, the lighthouse was moved to its present site, and its attached fog signal room and boathouse were built.

The design is "unique ... similar to that of the offshore spark-plug towers, but this tower is taller." Except for the additions made at the time of the move, it "bears some resemblance" to the Rock of Ages Light near Isle Royale on Lake Superior, which is its contemporary.

The lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 19, 1984, and later was designated a Chicago Landmark on April 9, 2003. The original Third Order Fresnel lens was removed, and is now on display at Cabrillo National Monument in California. It had been originally intended for and was destined for the Point Loma (California) light, but was diverted (for almost a century) and kept in Chicago following its display at the exposition.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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Chicago Graceland Cemetery - Garden Of The Dead

In Chicago, IL, the living and the dead have always sought the same space, high and dry land with good transportation. Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, the cemetery is typical of those that reflect Queen Victoria's reconception of the early 19th century "graveyard". Instead of poorly-maintained headstones, and bodies buried on top of each other, on an ungenerous parcel of land, the cemetery became a pastoral landscaped park dotted with memorial markers, with room left over for picnics, a common usage of cemeteries.

Graceland Cemetery brought together some of Chicago's best architects and landscape gardeners in this celebrated “garden of the dead.” Representing Chicago's foray into the landscaped cemetery, Graceland's roads, pathways, ponds, and naturalistic plantings surround monuments to some of Chicago's leading figures. The cemetery design was influenced by a host of landscape luminaries, with O. C. Simonds having the longest tenure.

Graceland Cemetery is a fascinating time capsule of history and landscaping. Here, on about 120 acres of land, surrounded by the bustling city, saint and sinner alike rest in perpetual silence. In life, they were friends or foes, artists or patrons; in death, fellow tenants of God's green acre. Here is the monument to railroad-car magnate George Pullman, whose labor practices prompted widespread unrest and strikes. Here is the marker for John Altgeld, Illinois's governor during the Pullman strike, whose sympathetic ear labeled him an anarchist. Exquisite monuments were crafted for Chicago's leading family names such as Ryerson, Getty, and Goodman, by equally renowned architects such as Louis Sullivan and Howard Van Doren Shaw, who later were themselves laid to rest at Graceland.

Architectural masterpieces, local history and beauty are the magnets that attract people to Graceland. It is one of the most interesting cemeteries in the world.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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'Eternal Silence'- Graceland Cemetery Chicago

Chicago arguably has the most interesting and significant history of any US city, and at Graceland Cemetery - also called "The Mount Auburn of Chicago" and "The Cemetery of Architects" - you can see the elaborate tombs of the men and women who made Chicago. Taking a stroll through Graceland Cemetery will take you back in time as you discover the history of some of Chicago’s rich and influential - famous politicians, architects, business leaders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and artists.

A robed and hooded bronze figure stands before a polished black slab of granite, its face partially hidden by one arm. 'Eternal Silence', also called the "Statue of Death", was created by sculptor Lorado Taft in 1909. Due to the way bronze ages, the statue turned green, while its face, set in a depth to be more protected, turned a dark black. The eight-foot-tall haunting draped and hooded, dark, morbid, almost scary appearance of 'Eternal Silence' marks the plot of hotelier Dexter Graves (1789-1844), who, in 1831, brought the first colony to Chicago from Ashtabula, Ohio.

Chicago, with its colorful history of scoundrels and gangsters, offers some of the most fascinating and well-designed cemeteries, and Graceland, with its handsome Victorian design, is one of the most amazing cemeteries in the country.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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Graceland Chicago - The Cemetery Of Architects

You don't think of cemeteries as beautiful places but in the heart of Chicago lies some of the most prime real estate and home to many of the most influential people of Chicago's past. This amazing and peaceful place is Graceland Cemetery, one of Chicago's oldest secular graveyards.

Graceland Cemetery in Chicago was founded in 1860 and developed over several decades by a series of landscape gardeners whose reputations today figure among the most important in the field. An exemplar of the rural cemetery type, Graceland was Chicago's answer to its eastern counterparts, Mount Auburn in Cambridge and Laurel Hill in Philadelphia. The stone monuments are a unique way to explore the history of the city through its makers. The famous names of Graceland reflect their importancein their own time, with their names still inscribed all over the city, but the world they built has largely vanished. Not just in terms of changing technology - but also by changes in society.

Today, with landscape-design ideas readily accessible through the plethora of consumer magazines, television shows, and Web sites, it is hard to appreciate that cemeteries were once major showcases of design talent. Yet in Chicago, as well as other major cities in America and Europe, cemeteries predated city parks as sites for pastoral strolls and quiet contemplation.

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

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