This street artist is not someone I knew, or ever will know. Because he was murdered in 2008. I found out about his death when a blog I follow on chicagonow.com posted a note that his murderer had recently been found guilty.
But he’s someone I could have known. He graduated from the Illinois Institute of Art, where I used to work. I could easily have walked past his art on my way from the Blue Line to Union Station on one of my visits home to see family.
So even though I didn’t know him, I wanted to mention his art and his passing here. Because really, he’s not that much different from a lot of the kids I did know on the Chicago streets. Not a lot different from any of us.