The Latest Stuff - Page 24 of 42

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April 20, 2015 Bill Swislow

Stanley Szwarc’s Visionary Cross Purposes

Stanley Szwarc (1928-2011), a Polish book keeper turned metal worker and then artist after arriving in the United States, gave no indication of being particularly religious, but he did like making crosses. A prolific creator of objects from scrap stainless steel, always demonstrating over-the-top imagination, Szwarc made hundreds of crosses, if not thousands. He produced jewelry, he made crosses to be hung on the wall, and he crafted cruciform objects with no apparent use other than to be carriers of his endless combinations of geometric shapes. Szwarc liked to say that no two of his objects, be they crosses, vases, key fobs or boxes, were alike. The evidence plainly supports that contention while demonstrating a virtuosic artistic vision

Skaters by Thomas Penn, DuSable High School

March 24, 2015 Bill Swislow

Vernacular Art Spectacular, DuSable High School

This group of drawings turned up at Maxwell Street some years ago. With the possible exception of “Take your cross and follow me,” which is an earlier piece, they were executed by students of Ethel Nolan, an artist and art teacher at DuSable High School on Chicago’s South Side. I’m guessing she might have saved the best of her students’ work, as represented here. Super fine vernacular art.

March 19, 2015 Bill Swislow

Crazy Store Names: Funereal Splendor

Some names are perfect for business, some not so much. Check out these.

March 15, 2015 Bill Swislow

Inside the Fireworks: A July 4 Light Show

Interesting things become visible if you get really up close to a July 4 fireworks display.

March 8, 2015 Bill Swislow

Business Name Failures

Perhaps you don’t really want to name these businesses after yourself: Sam N Ella’s River Club Bar & Grill, Kankakee; Bates Motel, Coeur d’Alene. More weird business names.

March 4, 2015 Bill Swislow

Wall Art: Generations of Jessica’s

Three generations of great roadside art signage on the wall at Jessica’s Western Wear, Clark near Lunt, Chicago. The art continues to deteriorate, and the store is now called Jessica’s Fashion, but there is still some cowboy gear in the window. What I really want to know, however, is where the Jetsons came in.

February 26, 2015 Bill Swislow

Weird Store Names: Questionably Gross

Not the grossest business ever. What about B&M Waste management? And more oddities.

February 22, 2015 Bill Swislow

Kedzie Avenue Gems

Kedzie Avenue is one of my favorite Chicago streets. It runs the length of the city and far south to 206th Street in Olympia Fields. It’s got a great name, for an early real estate developer. And of course there is a lot of fine signage along the way.

February 18, 2015 Bill Swislow

Review: Louis Wain’s Cats

Louis Wain would have been important if he had only been the greatest master ever of cute and anthropomorphic felinity, which, around the turn of the 20th Century, he was. His images of kitties were cranked out and reproduced in vast numbers, creating an inexhaustible reservoir of catty charm. Wain would have been important if he were only known for the increasingly bizarre and (before the term was coined) psychedelic cat images he produced toward the end of his life while institutionalized as a schizophrenic. And Wain would have been fascinating if only for the ceramic cats he designed in

February 14, 2015 Bill Swislow

Interesting Ideas