I am from the north side of Chicago, I moved around a bunch but I like claiming the Rogers Park/Uptown neighborhoods; that’s where I spent the majority of my time and where I felt most at home. I went to Chicago Public Schools for the most part and just graduated from The School of the Art institute of Chicago with a Bachelors of Fine Art. Drawing has always been really special and played a big role in my life but I didnt realize to what capacity I’d immerse myself in art making and thinking until later. Drawing was looked down upon academically but it was the thing I liked to do the most. Coming to terms with art making, being okay or like a thing I can do just all the time makes me happy every day and will forever.

I jumped into painting pretty exclusively upon starting at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). I wish I moved around departments a little more sometimes, SAIC’s curriculum promotes moving around and tasting different media but painting was too vast for me, I couldn’t get away from it. So I’ve been making paintings. They’ve moved around a lot the last 5 years, which should be no surprise- thats what student art is supposed to do or is like, sucks. Not that my stuff doesn’t suck a lot, and not that them sucking is problematic, all that stuff is cool. I like people’s paintings, cartoons, old and bad graphic design, stupid movie posters, dumb little every day moments and being romantic about stuff like electric air and pretty views. Bad sign painting and advertising is my shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. There’s all kinds of stuff I think about that comes and talks to my paintings. I like to address those interactions as dialogue between pictorial languages that are my favorite tools. Sometimes they yell at each other and act like rotten ass-holes and sometimes everyone’s relaxing. When I’m considering honest language surrounding my work that I feel good about investing in, it’s sitting in a room with a bunch of pictures and recording the conversation. John Wesley is amazing, and the weird Jean Helion’s that get all graphic and figural are sweet. I watched an Alex Katz interview from a couple years ago where he said “you should paint 6 hours a day 6 days a week for 6 years and then if you still like painting you can be a painter”. I can’t tell if that’s some dumb and dramatic Alex Katz shit to say or what but I like the idea of painters painting all the time. Rest in peace Nick The Lick.

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