TPP: Some Final Thoughts And a Thank You

As my classmates Amanda and Monica have already said quite eloquently, a great deal was learned and accomplished over the past few weeks. We have had the pleasure of working with a terrific artist and his site. We have learned an unbelievable amount, not just about social media, network and producing content for online news, but about a vibrant, fun, and all-around cool community. So I won't belabor the points made by my classmates (good points all). Instead, I would like, on behalf of the Pilsen Project, to extend my sincerest thanks to Pilsen and its artists for welcoming us into their community, taking time to talk with us, and sharing with us your enthusiasm for what you do and the neighborhood you call home.

A project like this is only as successful--or indeed as interesting--as the subject matter allows it to be. As our statistics showed over the past four weeks (almost 2,000 unique views in under four weeks!) The Pilsen Project was quite successful, if we do say so ourselves. We couldn't have accomplished that without the Pilsen art community, who effectively made this project as colorful and fun as it was.

So thank you Miguel Cortez, Jeriah Hildwine, Saul Aguirre, Alvaro Sahagun, Rebecca Beachy, Kate Bowen and all the other artists who took the time to speak with us about art, about community, and the subtle (and not so subtle!) intersections between the two. We could not have done this without you.



Katherine H.

Artist Snapshot: Jeriah Hildwine

Jeriah Hildwine | photo by Irish S.

We took a few minutes to chat with Chicago artist Jeriah Hildwine: a figure artist, outdoorsman, self-professed "nerd" and wearer of excellent kilts.

Hildwine, a native of San Diego Calif., has not lived in Chicago for a very long time, but he found very quickly that Chicago was an ideal place for a young artist.

“It’s fantastic,” Hildwine said of the city. “There is no better place to start your career [than Chicago].”

And he has been busy since arriving. Hildwine paints, writes articles for various arts publications, and teaches drawing and painting at various schools around the city. He says that while Chicago does not have the best market to sell art, “opportunities for…do-it-yourself stuff [art showings, galleries, etc.] are everywhere”, creating a strong network for local artists.

For his own art, Hildwine draws inspiration from a number of places, though one love of his actually does not play a huge role.

“I love the outdoors,” he said. “But it doesn’t feature in my art.”

Instead, Hildwine likes to focus on pop culture, particularly “nerd culture”: Dungeons and Dragons, horror and action movies, and similar. He likens artists and nerds to the archetypal “band and theater geeks” of high school; that, by stepping outside of the mainstream culture, they are in fact shaping it.

“There is something to be said for the outsider culture,” he said of his inspirations.

Eventually, Hildwine hopes to maintain a gallery in Chicago and live and create art somewhere outside the urban jungle, where, as he puts it with a grin, he can “live in the woods… and raise goats.”

For now, though, he is happy to be in the city he says is “absolutely a great place to be an artist.”

For more about Jeriah Hildwine, click here 


Katherine H.