Monday, November 14, 2011

Western Avenue Series

Mile 15: Congree-Kinzie
This sketch is a part of my Western Avenue Series, through which I'll be making 24 watercolor paintings, one to document each mile of Western Avenue, in Chicago.  I started this project because while it is not considered to be among the most “beautiful” of Chicago’s streets, Western Avenue is a perfect place to document the humanness of Chicago, the positive and the negative. In the words of Stuart Dybek, "Western, with apologies to State Street, is a great street,  Unlike State, it is a street that goes to the interior, the heart of the city, as it glides and glows through a United Nations of neighborhoods."  Check back next Monday to see the painting based on this sketch.
This stretch of Western is characterized by a number of building of a larger scale.  Recently build new condo buildings, larger institutional buildings and some early 20th century office buidlings.
This portion of the avenue is very close to the United Center (home to the Chicago Bulls), which is located at Damen Avenue and Madison.  
This stretch also passes near to the Western Avenue Metra Stop, near to which the train building featured in this upcoming painting is located.
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