William Dolan

This is where you can experience earlier works as they were created. It is esentially a repository for the stuff from the “Latest” page as the paintings are finished. It's kind of messy here, but since this is sort of an archive or a dump of old “latest” pages, a cleanup is on the D-list of things to do, so parden the dust and enjoy. If you want to see the latest, go here.

Small Works

For the bulk of summer, I'm working on a few small paintings. Like my earlier small works, these new pieces are snippets of the urban environment and a chance to experiment with new ways of looking at my work that happens at a slower pace of my larger stuff.

As I complete the underpaintings, I will post the images here and as the paintings develop, I will update these images to illustrate the significant stages.

Studio B Cam is OFF.

Grotesque

I would like to see a revival in grotesques. There has been a trend in the last couple of decades of referencing the architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in modern buildings. This, along with a renewed interest in ornate fixtures, such as street lights, gives the urban and suburban environment a warmer, more human feeling, I guess. Unfortunately, in many cases it hasn't been done well. This leads to a cartoonish, Disneyesque recreation of past cities that never existed. Perhaps adding some grotesques and gargoyles would help.

Norton

The crankcase cover of a Norton has an interesting shape that lends itself to exploring the abrstract reflections.

Support System

We all need some sort of support system to succeed in life. However, it is important not to loose one's sense of self while being part of someone else's support system.

Safety First

Before busses and L trains were air conditioned, they had windows that opened. Of course, the passengers had to be warned not to "put head or arms out of window."

Several times during the life of the vehicles, the interiors were repainted. This was always done by brush. As an economic measure, they painted around the warning stickers.

This one has been vandalized in a demonstration of creativity that was very common by the mid-seventies. During the sixties and early seventies, it was very rare to see vandalism in and on Chicago Transit Authority vehicles. However, as the 1970s progressed the thickly padded seats in the busses and trains were getting slashed at an alarming rate, leading to the hard, uncomfortable fiberglass seats of today.

Lotto Cigs

The urban general store has everything you need; groceries, sandwiches, cigarettes, beer and lottery tickets

A Long Night

I'm not sure if a long night starts or ends in a place like this, but I'm sure tomorrow's going to be rough.

Lounge Entertainment

It's got glass blocks, little window with a neon sign and art moderne trim. What more do you want? Oh yeah, some lounge entertainment.

I remember a couple of kids in grade school, that when they needed permission or money from their moms, they knew they would find them in a bar like this. In one case the family owned the joint and lived in the apartment upstairs.

NoParking

Just don't park in front of the garage, please. Thank you.

Herby's Red Hot's

This is a hot dog stand in a former gas station from the 1920s. It's open late and like every other hot dog stand, has the best hot dogs.

Although I would miss some things, I would be happy if my diet only consisted of the menu of a typical Chicago hot dog stand. I get hungry every time I work on this piece.

Forty Two

As I continue to explore the vanishing urban infrastructure that is being replaced by a a sort of "suburbanization," I turn the corner and find myself in a more seedy area. Before the internet, adult book stores used to dot the city landscape. This is one such place. They were close to downtown where the unhappily married man could stop off on the way home or at lunch and many were open 24 hours so the lonely and desparate could, well, whatever.

Because there were so many of these places, there must have been a need and since pornography makes up about half of all of the internet traffic and resources, that need must still exist. I was always fascinated by their carnival sideshow appearance. I'm sure there were many freaks inside.

32 Lanes

The bowling alley is typical of a large bowling alley one would find in the middle of the city. Often times, the alley was upstairs and covered the entire upper floors of the building. The first floor contained stores, bars and maybe a restaurant.

A few of these places survived and are somewhat cherished as something important from another era. As time moves on, some things are replaced. Some are remembered with reverence. Some are forgotten. As long as there are survivors that are taken care of, that's a good thing and those that are destroyed, something of value takes its place.

Except for the few that remain, the ones that disappeared were replaced by parking lots (like the one I based this painting on), condos or were burned down.

The car is a 1955 Hudson Hornet. It was the first year for Hudson after the merger with Nash on May 4, 1954 to form American Motors Corporation. These Hudsons were basically Nashes with Hudson engines. Hudson fans generally refer to these automobiles as Hashes. By 1958, though, American Motors reinvented itself behind the Rambler Marque and in 1970 under its own name. It lives on today as some of the DNA in Chrysler and in AM General. Yes, the HUMVEE that is used in defending Freedom was brought to us by the same people that gave us the Pacer.

Cocktails

As the city is being rebuilt into a safe-haven of trendy bar and grills and condominims, joints like this are disappearing. As you pass by, the smoke pouring out* and the loud muffled music is threatening. It's a scary place, but for some reason you want to go inside. The glass block windows and the single door in the hole suggests you may become trapped. What's going on in there? Is it safe?

I don't know. It may change your life. You may have fun. You may regret it. What's almost certain is, that you'll wake up the next day with a hangover.

*Of course these days, the smokers are on the sidewalk to greet you, but a sense of stale smoke being pumped out through an exhaust fan is burned into your memory like a mark from a butt snuffed out into a bar floor.

Jack's Corner

This is Jack's Corner.

Why is it Jack's Corner?

How the fuck should I know? Ask the people in Jack's Corner Tap Room. They'll tell you.

Live Music

On any given night, you can find someone performing live music in a club in just about any city or town anywhere in the world this is one such place. I'm not talking about karaoke here. If you want to sing along, maybe even with everyone else in the bar, fine. However, performing on the stage is best left to the professional musicians.

Electroliner 801 — 802

The North Shore Line, an interurban railroad that connected Chicago's L system with Milwaukee and the towns in between, had two streamlined articulated trains. They were called Electroliners and were the ultimate in interurban trains. This is one of the trains.

It is a foray into more abstract work for me. I was thinking about the silhouettes of the factories just north of Chicago's Loop that created canyons for the L line. These buildings are long gone and have been replaced by rows of bland homes. You do get a nice view of downtown from the L though that you didn't before.

As I am less familiar with Milwaukee, perhaps this train is going through a warehouse district in that great city. I don't know. I am more concerned with form, color and balance.

Plug

This is an examination of the form of a fire plug, or more accurately, the crotch of the fire plug.

The building is an older two-story store/apartment combination. I believe they harken back to sole proprierters that ran a store downstairs and lived upstairs. I'm not sure yet about what type of business will occupy the store, but I can work that out later. So for now, I will consider the underpainting finished and move on to the final painting.

There used to be another building next door. A strip of roofing from the demolished structure is stuck to the wall. I guess it was torn down a while ago because there is a cable box on our building.

There is also grafitti on painted-over grafitti. It's just one of many little scenes one may find while wandering the city at night.

Commission

Printers Row

As with most of the manufacturing world, it is more economical to print and assemble books in sprawling single story buildings. As the printers moved to the low-rise facilities, they left behind a lot of massive empty fortresses. Fortunately these structures also make great homes and were some of the first factories converted to loft homes in the city.

El Vocho

In Mexico, VW Sedans are lovingly referred to as “Vochos” This is a Mexico City cab on the streets of Rogers Park, Chicago. While I've never seen a Mexican cab in the U.S., I have seen quite a few Mexican VWs here. In order to bring a vehicle into this country, it has to meet certain crash and emission standards. It is generally prohibitively expensive to upgrade cars, especially those that were essentially built to early ’70s U.S. standards.

I love seeing old VWs, so I’m not complaining. I think it is silly to force the independent owner to update his car. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no different driving one of these on U.S. roads than an antique automobile. It’s impact on the environment and safety is minimal.

Back in the ’60s, there were many Volkswagens in Rogers Park, as it was and is, a neighborhood that attracts the “counterculture.” My dad had a ’68. Included in the VW population, was the occasional smuggled 1600 Sedan, a notchback version of the Squareback and Fastback. It was available in Latin America and Puerto Rico.

¡Viva el Vocho!

Manufacturing Concern

This is inspired by the many manufacturing concerns on Carroll Street. Some are operational while others are defunct. I'm not sure about this one, though. Despite all of the activity in the Kinzie Street Industrial Corridor, this area is rather peaceful most of the time.

Eldo

That’s an early ‘80s Cadillac Eldorado with 22” spinners and a somewhat obscene hood ornament. It takes place somewhere along Fulton Market, a collection of meat packing plants, smokehouses, art galleries, nightclubs and upscale loft condos. The area usually smells like sausages, except for the ocassional fish odor.

Several years ago there was an effort to shut down the market. It seems that the new condo owners decided that they didn't want trucks idling outside their buildings at two in the morning.

It's funny how that happens. People want to live in the dirty urban areas like they see in the movies and on TV, but after a while they want suburban quiet at night. There are many areas where there were night clubs and restaurants that attract condo development. Eventually parking is restricted to keep club goers out, precincts are voted dry, etc.

I hope this place doesn't become another suburban neighborhood within the city.

Metropolitan West Side

This latest painting is a departure from some of my recent work, although compositionally, it remains in the family. It’s an area of the city that has always had small and medium-sized industry. The bridge is from the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. It was the first electrified rapid transit line in the world and took a circuitous route into Chicago’s Loop. When the Dearborn Street subway opened in 1951, part of the original L structure was torn down. The the skeleton of this bridge over the busy railway along Hubbard Street remains today as a signal bridge. I put it back into service with a modern L car. While the route of the Dearborn Street subway makes more sense, it would be cool if this part of the elevated still existed. A couple of blocks from here was Lake Transfer, where the Met crossed the Lake Street Elevated. One could transfer between the two lines at this point and the view from the Metropolitan must have been spectacular and a little scary as it would have been almost twice as high as a normal L station.

Free Fries

This latest piece was inspired by a trip to the industrial west side. It originally was a home to late 19th century and early 20th century light industry. Today, some of it is abandoned, but most of it is being reused by early 21st century small business, industry and art. There are some great factories and warehouses that will find there way into future paintings. This one, however is a lone 3-flat. There are a few old apartment buildings and new ones being built on some of the vacant lots. It’s really inspiring, because it seems that the each company is going about its business quietly, including the artists. Despite the machinery and trucks, it’s a peaceful place. I could see having a studio down there at some point.

The actual storefront in this building is some sort of night club, complete with velvet rope. I chose to put a hot dog stand in there, with crude, hand-painted signage. I named it “Herbie’s” after the first place I had a Chicago hot dog. The original was a shack that stood in Weinstien Brother’s parking lot at Sheridan, Devon and Broadway. The asphalt parking lot also served as the eatery’s floor. It was demolished in 1968 to make way for a high-rise senior apartment building that is more or less an obelisk for that particular gateway to Rogers Park.

The painting is called “Free Fries.” Many stands include French fries with at least the hot dogs and sometimes with all of the sandwiches they serve.

New York has great pizza-by-the-slice places and delis. Chicago has hot dog stands. Philadelphia has its Philly cheese steak places. Together, they are an important part of the American urban fabric.

Damn, I’m getting hungry.

Red Cab

The latest piece is a red Ford pick-up from the eighties. It has a bunch of junk in the back, so it must belong to a scavenger.

Scrap metal collectors ply the alleys and streets of Chicago. They stack all sorts of cumbersome bulk garbage in the beds of their dilapidated pick-up trucks.

It's really amazing how well they can pile up the refuse. No matter how precarious their loads become, I have never seen one spill into the street. These guys know what they are doing. Perhaps they should hold some sort of competition.

While somewhat unsightly, they seem to have become a part of the urban fabric of the last 5 years or so. They do provide a good service.

Blue Caprice

The urban landscape is dotted with old Caprice Classics. Many of them are used taxi cabs, some are used squad cars. What is odd is that most are the square-top variety that were built from 1977 -1990. The bathtub Caprices from ‘91 – ‘96 are pretty scarce. This one is a former Yellow Cab as you’ll see by the chips on the edge of the door. Whether this car is used by a cab driver as his personal ride or a getaway car by a stickup crew, I don’t know. What I do know is that these cars are known the world over as something that can last a million miles. Until Gulf War I, these were popular in Iraq. In fact, I believe an entire plant shut down as the war started as it’s only customers were in the Persian Gulf region.

I once had the pleasure of touring the plant that stamped out the quarter panels for these machines. It took seven presses to create them. I don’t remember how heavy each one was, but they extended two floors below the room and dropped their die from two floors up. Whole railroad cars were down below to catch the scrap.

Next!

The old 1880s cottage is about to be demolished to make room for 3 soft loft condominiums. 10 years ago, a house like this would have had a gut rehab. Now, it is torn down. Why have one high end house when you can stack 3 on the same space? People want something brand new with soring ceilings, anyway. The problem is that there is too much of this going on, so the city is loosing its character. Whole blocks have been decimated in this fashion. Many of these new buildings ape the characteristics of earlier structures in a cartoonish scale, giving the city a “disney” feel. Eventually Chicago will feel as much like Chicago as New York, New York in Vegas feels like New York.

Carnival In the Sky

This paining is of a couple of apartment buildings near Lake Michigan in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. There is still a lot of beachfront and park land in accordance with Daniel Burnham's plan, but there are many places in Rogers Park where the buildings go right up to the water affording residents some really nice views of the lake. There are the occasional 1920s high rises poking up above the 3-story buildings. This is one that has been modified with new windows.

I usually like to have a title in mind when I start a painting. It seems like the piece has a point, then. However, sometimes I got nothin.' This is one of those cases. It will have a title eventually and it will probably relate to whatever is going on in the units. I just don't know what that is yet.

Update: Around this time of year, my thoughts turn to the upcoming Carnival season, so this piece has taken on a restrained Carnival theme and a name.

Cordoba

This latest piece is of a fictional bar called Cordoba. Of course, the car is an '80s Chrysler Cordoba. The bar's sign will be the Cordoba's crest. I don't know if the crest was based on anything real or if an artist at Chrysler cooked it up. This car is associated with "fine Corinthian leather," a meaningless term that a copywriter invented, so anything is posible. A Google search turned up nothing on the matter.

The Corner Revisited

I'm also working on a series of Giclee prints that will be available through this site. The first was “6th Street Apartment.” The second is called “Signal” wich remains unfinished. This one is called “The Corner Revisited.” Like a band that releases an album that goes back to their roots, I sometimes need to revise subjects and themes that were successful.

Chicago Christmas

This is a two-sided ornament that is being created for a benefit for the Chicago Art Foundation. Details on this two-sided painting and how you can buy it at auction will be posted here by November 9.

You can follow the progress here.

Swamp Holly Orange

The latest painting is called "Swamp Holly Orange." Named for the color of the stripe on the beltline of this rapid transit car, "SHO" is a tribute to the Chicago Transit Authority’s 6000 series L cars that ran for 40 years throughout Chicago. These are largely considered the classic Chicago L car much as one might consider the recently retired Redbirds, the classic subway cars of New York.

When the CTA was formed with the merger of the Chicago Surface Lines (streetcars) and Chicago Rapid Transit, it was stuck with an aging fleet of rail cars whose newest members were from the mid-20s and a bunch of streetcars that were systematically being replaced by busses. That meant that it had a lot of old wooden cars from the 1890s and a bunch of relatively brand new streetcars that needed to be retired.

Rather than scrap the streetcars, the 6000 series L contain as many parts from them as possible. Trucks, windows, seats, etc. were used in the manufacture of the new rail cars. Built by the St. Louis Car Company from 1950 to 1960, these cars have been an important part of Chicago’s identity that is slowly fading.

These are the cars of my youth. I remember riding them with my family. My father used to make us cross from car to car to find a better seat. Today, it makes me laugh to see the warning signs and guards to prevent people from doing this when I didn’t think much of it while walking through an entire train while speeding through the subway when I was 8 years old.

This painting represents the original color scheme. They repainted them in the ‘60s to match the green and white livery of the 2000 series cars that came on the scene in 1964. Some of them were given a bicentennial Red, White and Blue (and silver & black) paint job in the mid- 70s. The rest were eventually painted in silver, black, red, white and blue to match the newer equipment that used a toned-down variation of the bicentennial look.

As the CTA acquired newer cars, these beauties slowly disappeared between the mid ‘80s and ‘90s. A handful went to Philadelphia for use on their Norristown line as a stopgap measure while they waited for new cars to be delivered. A few went to rail museums and most of them were scrapped. One made it to the Smithsonian Institute.

Ironically, the trucks of some of them were returned to service on streetcars in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As a part of Kenosha’s revitalization after the demise of American Motors (sad story), the city acquired some PCC streetcars that Toronto was retiring. The gauge of the Toronto cars were too wide. Since the 6000 series cars were being retired at the same time, they were again recycled. The Trucks that started out on Chicago’s PCC streetcars are now back on PCC cars in Kenosha.

As for New York’s Redbirds, they’ve recently been replaced by a shipment of trains from Kawasaki. Some of them are now off the coast of Delaware forming an artificial reef for divers.

An era of rapid transit in the United States has come to a close. This painting is a tribute to it.

Bittersweet Mist

This is the second in a series based on 1970s car colors. The featured color is Bittersweet Mist, a burnt orange that was sprayed onto some Buicks in 1971. In this case, it is a Skylark that is ironically in front of the Skylark Lounge, a cool old bar at Cermak and Halsted on Chicago's South Side.

Unfortunately it is in an area that is poised to get swallowed up by the gentrification that is starting to infect the city south of the Loop. In fact, not only has the Maxwell Street neighborhood to the North, been gentrified, but the old was leveled first. There are new suburban psuedo-downtowns that have more of an urban feel than what you would find at University Place®.

Wild Plum

The car is a 1972 Javelin. The color will be "Wild Plum." The bulding is based on an abandoned structure somewhere west of Mc Cormick place. It looks out of place because all of the other buildings around it were torn down during the urban removal of the '60s. That's how the area appears anyway, with a lot of vacant lots and a few scattered high-density apartment buildings ca. 1965.

I think this is a start of a series based on car colors of the '70s and maybe another decade or two.