Lovely views from Chicago’s vast South Side repository of commercial creativity.
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Book Review
Authentic Heaven: The Vernacular Art of Urban Spirituality
How the Other Half Worships, by Camilo Jose Vergara, Rutgers University Press, 286 pages, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8135-3682-8 How The Other Half Worships celebrates one of the great engines of true vernacular expression – religion. The subject is inner-city churches, with an emphasis on the storefront variety. Camilo Jose Vergara has spent years visiting and photographing urban churches and their people, fascinated by their architecture and decoration, by what people do in them and by what they do for people. The book is built around his photographs, but it also gives the church folk a direct voice. The generous quotations from
Continue readingRe-engineered Gyros Project
I’ve rebuilt the Gyros Project to make the pages more consistent and present some more interesting groupings. It’s still 246 of the best gyros pictures anywhere.
Continue readingBizarre Bazaars
Weird, Wacky and Just Plain Embarrassing Business Names From the Grog N Groc Hall of Fame Order the book here
Continue readingThe Gyros Project 2007 Calendar
Fast food is not the usual subject of creative vision, but the gyros signs of Chicago are masterpieces of prosaic art. This calendar features photos from The Gyros Project. You can order a copy here.
Continue readingNew Signs
Check out a bunch of great new signs from coast to coast.
Continue readingRoadside Art Online: Signs of a Deep South Drive
The creativity on display from Florida to Chicago can’t be beat. There are two new pages of roadside signage, the second devoted to Albany, Georgia, a great example of how lean times can preserve a certain slice of our visual culture.
Continue readingWestern Avenue Art Gallery: The Suburbs
The same artistic brilliance to be found on Chicago’s city roadsides is abundant in its older suburbs.
Continue readingSignage Update
I’ve added some new signs in the course of reorganizing how I present them. I’ve mostly separated Chicagoland signs from the rest of the world and I’ve reorganized most of Western Avenue Art Gallery signs into geographical pages rather than thematic. This makes it far more likely that I’ll get signs posted, since it makes them much easier to post. Check out the four new groups: Western Avenue Clark Street Pilsen Varieties
Continue readingThe 47th Street Art Show
47th Street is one of Chicago’s great signage thoroughfares. Here are some recent finds.
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