As a founding member of Forgotten Chicago, Serhii Chrucky (pronounced SIR-he KROOTS-key) spends his available time (when he’s in not in class at UIC) examining relics of Chicago’s past. Forgotten Chicago is part photo album, historical repository, and architecture / infrastructure as art.

Schlitz Tied House, 21st and Rockwell. 2008. Photo: Serhii Chrucky.

Our main goal is to discover and document little known elements of Chicago’s infrastructure, architecture, neighborhoods and general cityscape, whether existing or historical. — Forgotten Chicago

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Temporary Allegiance. Courtesy of Josue Pellot.

An interview with Josue Pellot, Chicago Artist To Watch

By Miguel Jimenez

Everyone meets at Humboldt Park’s Café Colao to have coffee on a Tuesday morning — from local politicians to the neighborhood’s elderly. I met with Chicago Artist to Watch Josue Pellot, and what began as an interview developed into another conversation among the many in Café Colao.

MJ: What do you usually order here?

JP: At the very least, I’ll always have Café con Leche.

MJ: Why did you choose this café for our interview?

JP: I was born in Puerto Rico but raised here [Humboldt Park], and a lot of my work comes from conversations I’ve had in this Café, from just hanging out and talking to people. Ideas for some work began here and turned into full projects. For instance, I was eating a sandwich one day and saw this machine in the corner.

Josue points to the “Boricuas,” a toy vending machine that sells stereotypical Puerto Rican toy figures for fifty cents.

Family Portrait of Boricuas Toys. Courtesy of Josue Pellot.

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Fear and Curating in Chicago

An interview with and by John Brunetti, Director, Alfedena Gallery

What motivated you to become a curator?

JB: Fear.

Seriously?

JB: Yes, seriously. Fear can be a great motivator. It can either hold you back or set you free. I had never intended to be a curator, just as I had never intended to be an art critic. Those were two jobs that grew out of my desire to survive in the arts after I got my MFA in 1987. My original intention was to be a painter. But in the case of my painting career, fear kept me from making that happen, so I decided to start making fear work for me in other ways.
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How much farther until we get to the other side?

Today, Richard and I went to Artropolis at the Merchandise Mart about 11 a.m. and left about 2:30 p.m. There are 5 concurrent shows under one roof.

Art Chicago (12th floor) — art in a gallery atmosphere featuring works appealing to curators and collectors

NEXT (7th floor) — an invitational exhibition of international contemporary emerging art focusing on single artists or special projects

The Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair (south side of the 8th floor)

The Artist Project (north side of 8th floor) — work of independent artists

The Intuit Show (northwest corner of the 8th floor) — folk and outsider art

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Living in Chicago since 2000, Daniel Godston professes that his family moved around a lot. He earned a BA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, taught English as a Second Language in South Korea for several years, and then returned to the US to earn an MFA in Creative Writing at Mills College, in Oakland, CA. In Chicago, Godston teaches English Composition, Literature, and New Millennium Studies courses at Columbia College. He also teaches poetry to young people who are hospitalized, through Snow City Arts Foundation, and he teaches creative writing to high school students, through the Center for Community Arts Partnerships. When he’s not teaching or publishing poems, he plays the trumpet with his trio, Ways & Means. Their recent CD, Fire of Dream, features poetry and experimental ritual music that is influenced by jazz and world music.

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