I am an illustrator and designer and the owner and operator of Hotbox mobile gallery. Hotbox is essentially a delivery truck that I turned into an art gallery. I contact a lot of people that inspire me—sometimes they’re my friends, sometimes they’re friends of friends, but for the most part it’s just people that I see around the city that I think are doing something really cool. They’re usually pretty excited about being able to paint a huge truck themselves, to showcase their art in a really interesting way.
Tara D., 28, is an illustrator and designer who goes by Lil’ Brown Bird. She owns and operates a gallery on wheels called Hotbox with her boyfriend, a local street artist named Nice One. —Leor Galil
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Three years ago, I was working at an ad agency and constantly feeling conflicted between being a designer—not really having a lot of expression or anything in my work—and wanting to have this other side of what I did that was handmade. I was like, I need to try to do something for myself, because I could work in advertising forever. I’d be happy and I’d be paid and I’d be comfortable, but I really just want to try to do something that I feel is really true to who I am. I’ve made some money from advertising, and I just want to blow it all on a big idea.
I have this problem where I’m always like, “Oh, I’m over Chicago. I need to get out of here.” Then the moment I cross other state borders I realize I have a huge support group and a ton of connections and there’s a lot of really great things here that take time to build anywhere else. It always brings me back. I’ve left like two or three times and I’m like, “I’m going back home.”
Index: 2012 People Issue
