ORGANIC BUT CURATED.
GRDN is a Chicago-based creative magazine featuring pieces that highlight local art, music, fashion, politics, and culture.
How it started…
A former high school peer reached out to me.
“I really love the work you’ve been posting. My friend and I have been working on starting an art magazine and think you’d be a great addition to the team we’re trying to bring together”
I was intrigued and soon we had our first team meeting. The five of us clicked instantly and shared the same opinion: There were a lot of creatives in Chicago whose work deserves to be recognized, and we wanted to create an outlet for them to share their work.
And so, GRDN was born.
The Inception of the Brand
We began our Instagram by posting our mission statement and group-designed logo, establishing GRDN‘s personality and intended audience.
Soon, we opened submissions for ISSUE 001: Enter the GRDN. The theme was open to interpretation and we encouraged any and all creatives to submit their work to be considered for our first issue.
Each of us five team members managed one of the five sections of the magazine (Art, Music, Fashion, Politics, and Culture). We curated the pieces we wanted to include in our spread and wrote a piece on the topic from our experience and perspective.
I was the curator for the Art section.
About My Piece
I chose to write a reflective piece about a poem that I recently came across, “The Chicago Picasso” by Gwendolyn Brooks. It offers a enlightening perspective on how people view art, and whether it owes us beauty or explanation. I fell in love with the poem after discovering it through a poster design that I did for Design Museum of Chicago’s Emerging Artists' Exhibit.
“Art hurts. Art urges voyages. And it is easier to stay at home.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks
The pieces I included around my writing were submitted by painters, photographers, and multimedia artists in the Chicago area. While none of the artists knew each other’s pieces before submitting, they all worked together in a beautiful harmony with the sentiment I was aiming to write: that art does not owe you anything but gives you everything if you are willing to receive it.
“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.
The Launch Party
To celebrate the launch of our first issue and build a community around the magazine, we hosted a launch party with art vendors and food.
We had over 100 people RSVP and the night was a success, with several DJs performing sets and dozens of guests receiving their magazine orders. It was so rewarding to see our hard work pay off in people’s excitement.
