Western Avenue Series

Mile 17: Division to Armitage
This painting 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 a post about the next mile of Western.

This painting is complete though the documenting of it (as is apparent from the hole in the center of the image) is not!  The subject of this painting is the Western Avenue Blue Line station, located just south of Armitage.  This station opened in 1895 as part of the Metropolitan Elevated's Logan Square branch. In 1930 an Art Deco style façade replaced its original station entrance.  I wanted to paint this station because the I find it be quite elegant.  It's a familiar stop, with several favorites of mine, particularly Margies, which I mentioned in the previous post, as well as Belly Shack (owned by the same folks at Urban Belly), and Green Eye.

Click here to purchase this painting.

Do you have a favorite El station in Chicago?

Next stop, Revolution Tattoo, stay tuned!