Pilsen artist holds her own despite community change

By Lawrence McCallum 

Anne Farley Gaines has become a legend in the Pilsen art community.

After receiving her MFA from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1980, she settled in Pilsen and began pursuing a career in painting. In 1984 she opened Pilsen Screens at 1839 S. Halsted St. where, for two decades, she created numerous works of art, welcomed private and corporate clients, and coordinated art openings.

By early 2004, Gaines had grown weary of paying both rent and a mortgage on the house she had purchased in 1993 at 19th Street and Union Avenue. She also had conceived a great vision of the studio/gallery/workshop space she could have at home, so she moved the Halsted Street studio over to her house.

She maintains a connection with her former space, however, which now is known as Watermark Gallery and run by Keith Evans, a serigrapher and graphic artist. Evans will exhibit Gaines's work Tuesday through Thursday, May 1 through Thursday, May 31, in a show called Lessons from a House. A reception open to the public will be held from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Friday, May 11. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment

The show will display a series of three-dimensional watercolors that are meant to be concurrently tragic and humorous; they express the range of feelings Gaines experienced after buying her home and finding it needed just about everything imaginable done to it.

The project attracted a Cultural Arts Assistance Program grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, which Gaines received last year to produce the painting series. She also hopes to publish a book, feeling it could provide excellent cautionary material to artists contemplating buying a fixer-upper.

 

'A period of mourning'

Although consolidating her living and working spaces was the right move, Gaines said she “underwent a period of mourning” after closing her Pilsen Street location. “For two decades I enjoyed the pleasant surroundings of the courtyard [at Podmajersky Village, where her Halsted Street studio was located], where I spent many happy hours,” she said. “The frequent contact with [landlord] Ann Podmajersky is also something that I sorely miss, and her positive energy and encouragement were always a source of strength.

"I also miss her husband John’s boyish sense of exuberance about a new change he had just made in the neighborhood, such as the roofless church with the glorious garden out in back at the corner of 19th and Peoria and the performance stage in the courtyard in back of the studios at 19th Street near the old kiln," Gaines continued. "He loved sharing his vision and often knocked on my door to tell me about his latest innovation, inviting me over to take a look. Any on-looker would be hard-pressed to distinguish him from his workers, as John frequently was dressed very casually, with telltale dirt under his fingernails. However, he always looked very polished while showing his spaces to an architect or student group."

The Podmajerskys enriched many other lives over the last few decades. During the 1960s, the artist community of East Pilsen flourished as a result of their influence, becoming a new facet to an already multi-faceted neighborhood. The Podmajerskys renovated old storefronts, former mom and pop businesses, and outlets of the West Side garment district. They transformed deteriorating structures into studios and tiny art galleries and turned alleys and their often garbage-strewn alcoves into courtyards and garden spots. The distinctive Pilsen identity, punctuated by the unique physicality of the buildings, attracted newcomers to the fold and helped expand its bohemian sector.

                For years, the community existed as a tranquil island in which artists gave one another positive reinforcement amid the relaxed contact of kindred spirits. That closeness also created an insular quality, an existence both cloistered and defensive, Gaines said. Circles of artists often became tiny closed societies that scrutinized newcomers harshly.

When Gaines established herself along Halsted Street in the 1980s, she entered the heart of this quirky community. Galleries and studios at that time were largely alternate spaces occupied by counter-culture advocates.

Since then, most of the struggling artists have departed, driven out by gentrification. Artists and galleries espousing a more mainstream identity took over the vacated spaces and flexed their financial muscle and flexibility by taking a business approach similar to that of studios located in Wicker Park and other upscale areas. Such East Pilsen spaces are now part of the Chicago Arts District.

 

Exploration and expansion

Although the days of East Pilsen as the bohemian sector have ended, some remaining members of the old guard—including Gaines—are savoring a new freedom.

“For years I was a bit trapped without realizing it,” she explained. “Since the closing of Pilsen Screens on Halsted Street, I have explored and expanded elsewhere. There is now the necessary solitude to do work of a more contemplative nature without feeling locked in.” 

Gaines keeps a mental balance sheet of the gains and losses that gentrification’s two-edged sword has brought. She feels formation of the Chicago Arts District on Halsted Street "was a good strategy that the Podmajerskys seem to have followed” because it altered the course of gentrification in Pilsen, protected its artsy identity, and averted absorption by University Village.

"Another good development is the fact that certain areas of Pilsen have now been declared a landmark district,” Gaines continued. “This preserves several of the vintage buildings of the community and it’s also good for the tax situation. None of us wants to pay more than what is necessary. I know people who lost buildings to the University of Illinois at Chicago when the City invoked eminent domain. It is a threat that many buildings are now protected from in Pilsen, and in time I hope that many more will be protected if they apply for landmark status for their homes and are granted it.” 

Landmark status for Pilsen was pushed for strongly by Alderman Danny Solis of the 25^th Ward.

In a positive development resulting from the neighborhood changes, inhabitants of University Village are starting to buy work from local artists. A couple living in a luxury condo on the top floor of the former Salvage One building on Peoria Street acquired 30 tiles from Gaines’s European Series for their kitchen. She was thrilled to view the installation and feels she has made new friends.

Gaines believes part of the area’s richness stems from its Hispanic tradition. She hopes newly constructed properties in the neighborhood will shoulder a greater share of property taxes—which typically rise with gentrification—so long-term residents can stay put. “How affordable will the neighborhood be for Mexican immigrants, I wonder?" Gaines mused. "Many have been here for years and years and have put their life’s savings into their homes.” She also believes “more artists should be able to buy property" in the area.

 

Art is main focus

                Art, not property, remains Gaines's main focus, however.

Through a grant from After School Matters, she and her friend, Bob Klunk, are coordinating a series of murals, which are created at locations including Chi-Town Futbol. The project aligns with her social conscience, which dictates art should be for and about all people, not just an elite few. As part of the project, she and Klunk are working with students from the Benito Juarez and Christo Rey High Schools in Pilsen.

Chi-Town Futbol is an indoor sports facility on Throop Street south of Cermak Road that attracts many youth from Pilsen. Last year, a mural Gaines’s group painted there on exterior plaster board was installed in Harrison Park and dedicated by Governor Rod Blagojevich during a neighborhood celebration of El Dia de los Ninos, The Day of the Children. Her group currently is creating a series of colorful images featuring ancient Aztec and Mayan symbols, a project that began last September.

                “Sessions with the kids usually last for two hours,” said Gaines. “There are times when my involvement there is really hands-on."

Several groups consisting of two or three teenagers receive instruction from Gaines regarding visual composition and use of color. Some of the work involves peripheral detail or finishing touches to an image largely completed.

Gaines also is working on IADT On-Stage, a three-dimensional mural she is coordinating with several students from the International Academy of Design and Technology (IADT) at 1 N. State St. The piece consists of a low-relief theatre stage with the letters IADT at center stage; each letter is a montage, and a multi-cultural audience is looking on.

“Students have had a great deal of fun making those three-dimensional heads from the flat forms I’ve cut out," she said. "I can’t wait to see it all complete.” Besides delighting onlookers on a day-to-day basis, she hopes the mural will inspire potential students visiting the school to enroll at the academy.

In reflecting on the changes she has seen in Pilsen, Gaines said none of them made her feel lost or out of place. Part of her comfort during change has come from following her own path throughout her career. She also credits her origins in Michigan.

“It may be hard to describe, but there is a sense of individualism inherent to the state. Michganders tend to be like their trees; they stand singly rather than in groups. My art isn’t derivative. My Michigan way of being has motivated me to avoid groups and being a ‘joiner.’"

If Gaines is any example, the spirit of the free thinker still thrives in Pilsen and is shared by kindred spirits who continue to adapt well to community change.

For more information, contact Watermark Gallery at (312) 455-9696.