It's all custom

This is an oil painting that I just finished of the Clark Street Bridge, a bascule bridge that spans the Chicago River. I used a photograph for reference. I have been painting ever since my sister gave me a little oil paint kit when I was seven, but I have never named a painting before; either because I think its pretentious or I am just not good enough.  But this one I am naming, “It’s All Custom” after my late brother in law that was a father figure and a tremendous positive influence in my life.

Chicago is a city built on architecture. Big D was an estimator for different Chicago architectural steel and ornamental iron companies. Projects that he worked on, like the curved steel railing in this painting, are all over the city.   He taught me, architecture is about experience: not only visual but also what you can touch, what you can feel. 

Wherever we were together, he would spot a curved staircase or hold an ornamental  handrail in a museum and say, “it’s all custom”.

Good buildings come from good people, and the artistic touches that make things special are part of good design.