Some friends that I went to high school with got married on June 6th. My friend Corrine reached out to me after seeing one of my posts and asked if I would help her design a window piece for their wedding. So of course I said sure, and I have the perfect window for it!
She liked the idea of the Chicago vs. (Anywhere) flags...
Interview with Corrine -
So ever since December, I have been racking my brain on what to get two of my oldest friends for their wedding present. I tend to go a little overboard on presents for close friends. It can’t just be a stack of dishes or a set of sheets, it’s got to mean something. It has got to represent our friendship, their place in the world and their relationship as a whole. As you can see, this is a load of ridiculous pressure I put on myself, but this time it seemed to work out. I wanted to get them something that represented their love for their hometown, Chicago and their new beloved home, New York. This is a similar love for me as well, growing up in New Jersey, New York City is the equivalent to Chicago for suburb kids. So one morning while looking at my friend Jared’s art work online, a piece he did on Chicago vs. Seattle made a lightbulb go off in my head. This would work, this would show them as much their friendship has meant to me over the years.
I’ve known Megan for twenty years now, which seems unbelievable as I write it. I had just moved to Illinois from New Jersey and was starting 7th grade part way through the school year. My first day was brutal. I was suppressing the urge to vomit all over my obviously not-cool- enough clothes and run as far away from my suburban nightmare as I could. Then, as I was sitting in the back corner of the gym, trying as hard as I could to remain invisible, this bubbly, curly haired creature came skipping up to me. “Hey, I’m Megan! I heard you’re from New Jersey, that’s so cool! Wanna sleep over at my house this weekend?” And so the day got better, and I stopped holding back tears while willing myself to teleport back to Jersey where things made sense. I did sleep over her house that weekend. And we slid down stairs in sleeping bags and watched Friends while laying on the floor watching her two ferrets play. I don’t think she realized how grateful I was to her all these years. We remained friends all throughout school and as luck would have it, ran in all the same circles. We may have drifted in and out of each other lives over the years but every time she would drift back in, it was like the years had never passed. To this day, just seeing her brings a sense of comfort to my gut, just like that scary day in 1995. Sappy? Maybe, but you don’t forget things like that.
I remember meeting Matt the summer before high school. I have a foggy memory of a bunch of skater boys riding on the back of grocery carts in an empty Target parking lot. It may not be as vivid as my first memory of Megan, but that was Matt. He was just a constant presence in my memories. Maybe not in technicolor, but still a very reliable hue. He always was the laid back one, the one who had something nice to say about everyone, the one that was never involved in any of the typical high school drama. He always had a funny impression or a story to make you laugh when you were having a bad day. Being a Pisces like me, we always seemed to understand each other and meshed very well as friends. He just had an aura of comfort around him, he was just…. He was just Peace. The first time I realized there was something between him and Megan, there was a big “Ah-ha” moment. Of course they would fall for each other, of course! It made so much sense, it was the natural course of the Universe. Megan would end up being a Peace, because after all, that’s who she is as well. She’s just….peace.
So in this piece of Peace, Jared used his brilliant artistic mind to represent the sun setting on Chicago and rising in New York, the colors blending to represent their new life together. He even used a window from a historical Chicago building to add more meaning to the piece. I’m so happy with the way it turned out. A colorful representation of Matt and Megan. I hope they love it as much as I do.
-Corrine
Corrine wanted to have his and her (new) las name be in the art somewhere, so we decided why not front and center where everyone can see, bold and bright.
This is the idea we worked on, incorporating both skylines and adding the stars really gives it that sweet home Chicago feel. So I caulked some of the windows backing just to reinforce it because I know they are planning on driving their gifts back home (to New York). Side note if you are an artist your self and you ever have to ship something like glass, use FedEx, they might have different prices but UPS will drop your stuff and break it! Then you might have to make a completely different same piece (awkward).
So this is the window taped up on the reverse side with the template laid out for me to start cutting my stencil, I have been making so many paintings lately that I have to use a band aid when I use my razor because I stopped using my usual cutter pen. I feel like I have better control with a razor in my hand.
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| no band-aid |
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| band-aid |
I weeded the stencil and now I prepare the cans....
Shake, shake, shake, shake ya bootay !!! shake ya bootay !!!
Sped up video of me in the studio
Stripes
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| Chicago Side |
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| New York Side |
Symbolism
Stripes
The three white background areas of the flag represent, from top to bottom, the North, West and South sides of the city. The top blue stripe represents Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River. The bottom blue stripe represents the South Branch of the river and the "Great Canal", over the Chicago Portage
Stars
There are four red six-pointed stars on the center white stripe, from left to right (although this is not the order in which they were added to the flag).
The first star represents Fort Dearborn. It was added to the flag in 1939. Its six points symbolize transportation, labor, commerce, finance, populousness, and slubrity.
The second star stands for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and is original to the 1917 design of the flag. Its six points represent the virtues of religion, education, aesthetics, justice, beneficence, and civic pride
The third star symbolizes the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and is original to the 1917 design. Its six points stand for political entities Chicago has belonged to and the flags that have flown over the area: France 1693, Great Britain 1763, Viginia 1778, the Northwest Territory 1789, Indiana Territory 1802, and Illinois (territory 1809, and state in 1818).
The fourth star represents the Century of Progress Exposition (1933-1934), and was added in 1933. Its points refer to the bragging rights: the United States' 2nd Largest City (became 3rd largest in 1990 census when passed by Los Angeles), Chicago's Latin Motto (Urbs in horto - City in a garden), Chicago's "I Will" Motto, the Great Central Marketplace, Wonder City, and Convention City.
A possible fifth star has been proposed for the city flag on more than one occasion. The first occasion occurred in the 1940's, when a letter to the Chicago Tribune asked that a fifth star be added to the city in honor of the city's place in the history of the nuclear age. On another occasion, a star was proposed in honor of Harold Washington, the first African-American mayor of Chicago. A fifth star was also discussed following the Flood of 1992. A proposal was put forward by the 2016 Olympic Games Bid Committee; if the bid to host the games had been successful, a fifth star might have been added to the flag; however, the Olympic bid was lost to Rio de Janeiro.
Six pointed stars are used because five-pointed stars represent sovereign states, and because the star as designed was not found on any other known flags as of 1917.
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