The Chicago Design Museum Poster Exhibition
I was selected by a panel of judges to design a poster for Design Museum of Chicago’s Emerging Artists Exhibit in May of 2024. Each artist selected a quote to design a poster around, and I chose a line from Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem, “The Chicago Picasso.”
She writes, “Art hurts—Art urges voyages. And it is easier to stay at home.”
This project came at a time in my life when I was making a lot of decisions that felt big and uncomfortable at times, and her words reminded me that my passion for art is where I can find direction in my anxieties and life’s unanswerable questions. It is easier to stay where I am comfortable, but I can only grow if I follow the voyage that art urges me on.
click the poster to see it on their Instagram!
“The Chicago Picasso” by Gwendolyn Brooks
Does man love Art? Man visits Art, but squirms.
Art hurts. Art urges voyages--
and it is easier to stay at home,
the nice beer ready.
In commonrooms
we belch, or sniff, or scratch.
Are raw.
But we must cook ourselves and style ourselves for Art, who
is a requiring courtesan.
We squirm.
We do not hug the Mona Lisa.
We
may touch or tolerate
an astounding fountain, or a horse-and-rider.
At most, another Lion.
Observe the tall cold of a Flower
which is as innocent and as guilty,
as meaningful and as meaningless as any
other flower in the western field.