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T-shirt Artist Calls for
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He is a "T-shirt artist with a soul. He signs his art C. Drew. He is on the street with a message to the CTA riding public. "Help Chicago find a creative way to accept Citgo's offer of oil to help provide low-income citizens of Chicago with free or low-cost fare cards!" CTA's fare increases will cut hardest on low-income riders. The unemployed can not easily seek work or even at times get to work once they finally find it. Low income people are stressed by the cost of public transit. If an opportunity comes Chicago's way to allow low-income Chicagoan's a break - we should take it. Citgo has offered to assist Chicago to take the bite out of CTA's fare increase for those of us with the least. Let's find a creative way to accept this offer. This is the artist's message. The story is in how he is presenting his message. You may see him wearing his political t-shirt art over his winter coat, standing near an El-stop passing out small fliers with his "Peace Personified"TM graphic-art gracing the front. At present he has 44 peace signs made into faces posted on his website at c-drew.com along with his other t-shirt art designs. This number will continue to grow as long as we are at war, the artist promises. On the back of each flier is an invitation for people to call their Aldermen and ask them to invesigate who dropped the ball in these negotiations. Mr. Drew is not new to applying his art to initiate public discourse. He has worked in community art settings all of his adult life. As a child in the "sixties" and as a student in the "seventies" - community art then meant speaking out, about change and discussion and democracy as well as the aesthetics which makes that conversation happen for the viewer. His approach has never changed. For the last 15 years he has maintained the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center (UM-CAC) and its mainstay program, the "Art of the T-shirt" exhibits. C. Drew also teaches artists how to screen-print their art on t-shirts for free at UM-CAC's "Screen Print Workshop for Artists." The "T-shirt Art Harvest Fest" annually shows t-shirt art spanning 15 years of exhibits and growing. When Mr. Drew read that the CTA had secretly turned down an offer by Citgo to help fund free or low-cost fare cards for Chicago's low-income riders, he remembered his hard times while struggling to maintain UM-CAC. If handled well, low-income people will get a break, the CTA will get revenue and all of Chicago will benefit. Mr. Drew says, "Too often the City is asked to give corporations tax breaks just to keep them in town. Chicago should not turn its back on this example of good corporate citizenship." Drew is using his art to invite others to tell their Aldermen, "Work with Citgo!" And to Citgo he says, use Chicago non-profits if the City is slow. You may see Drew trying to hand you a small flyer with the words "Peace Art?" Ask him for a free peace-patch. He gives them away. |
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C Drew * E-mail
cdrew@c-drew.com
* Ph.773/456-3564 * P.O. Box 608081, Chicago, IL 60626
SPW Art | Harold's Chicago Cultural Plan | ART-ACT ART | Other Artists |