VISUALIZATIONS FROM CHICAGO

VISUALIZATIONS FROM CHICAGO

(nerda attends the CAA conference in 2010)

I shot this photo for my sister, she's real into owls. The whole time our plane was in the air all I could see was this owl looking at me, and i couldn't help but think about that movie wehre people get abducted by aliens and see owls all the time.

Heres ryan looking less than pleased that he had to pay to watch TV, way to go Frontier!

As we descended into Chicago Midway I noticed this "M" shaped building. I think all buildings should be the shape of a letter, and spell out little antecdotes for the travel weary.

The woman on the plane next to me told me that this view is of Chicago from about thirty miles away, she also told me that Uno's pizzeria was the best pizza in downtown Chicago. I think I saw her wandering around aimlessly down by the baggage claim searching for her lost cat a few minutes later...

Getting closer, this city is prety big by the way.

Uhm, which way do we go?

Out of place.

"See that building, that's the Sears Tower, I know cause I go to school here."

-Random dude on street downtown

This place was way awesome, super modern and overall aesthetically pleasing, which made up for the fact that it was blocking our view of the city from our hotel (the little black building behind it).

Downtown Chicago's architecture was so awesome you almost forgot it had the same crappy restaurants and retail stores as every other major city.

I like to tell people that this is the view from my hotel room. It's actually the view from the elevator lobby.

Heres a shot of me taking a picture of Liberty taking a picture of Bobby and Jen in front of a giant statue of American Gothic but not really in front of NBC studios in downtown Chicago, where Oprah films her shows.

Metal Moose.

Oh America how I love you so.

"See that building, that's the Sears Tower, I know cause its the tallest building in Chicago."

-Random dude on street downtown

Old.

Church.

This guy was buying ice cream.

We went to the MCA one day and I was able to take some photos of some really cool artwork. However I was also forced to rush cause the security guards wanted to catch their trains or whatever. Here's what i was able to snap.

Heres some pretty awesome shots of the city at dusk.

For some reason this thing was parked outside the conference all week, probably in case some rowdy art history professor got too drunk off wine coolers and started a heated debate about the feminist movement.

Meanwhile, an extraterrestrial spacecraft had crashed landed into Millenium Park. NASA workers found the craft seamless and impenetrable.

We also went to see the art institute of Chicago's impressive collection of everything you've ever seen in an art history book . It was free February and there were way too many kids there. Heres an assortment of art that you've seen before.

Ryan looks happy to be leaving the european modernism wing.

You are beautiful.

We found time in between sessions to find our way over to the West Loop which can be compared to the Five Points neighborhood in Denver.

Jen and I made some peanut people...

Heres where we ate lunch everyday, the Chipotle on Michigan and Wacker.

RED LINE. Chicago.

This was a way cool place on Milwaukee avenue that charged way too much for stuff you could buy in an Oriental Trading Catalogue. There were some cool art installations there though.

The winter and local anti-graffiti laws made it hard for me to enjoy any street art in Chicago, but I did find some nice little gems.

This picture was really awesome, i shot it just as the Subway was coming down the track, when those trains approach it feels like an earthquake. It reminded me that the earth might be pissed off, hence all the earthquakes, i'd be pissed off too if I had billions of parasites eating me alive and tapping deep under my skin. And then I got hit up for Change.....